The approval of the Victims and Prisoners Bill comes days after the Infected Blood Inquiry concluded that the infection of around 30,000 people across the UK with hepatitis and HIV through treatment with contaminated blood between the 1970s and 1990s “could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided”.

Interim compensation payments of £100,000 were previously paid to around 4,000 victims, including 100 in Northern Ireland. More victims are now receiving interim payments of £210,000, with final payments expected to be made by the end of the year.

The ICBA will not be able to make final payments until regulations are enacted by the government. The legislation requires these regulations to be made by 24 August 2024.

The law also requires the government to review candour laws by 1 January 2025, following the inquiry’s recommendation that a duty of candour be introduced across government.

Sir Robert Francis KC, interim chair of the IBCA, said on Friday: “I am very pleased to see that today Parliament has passed the legislation bringing the Authority into existence and to be formally confirmed as its interim chair.

“I fully understand the urgency for the infected and affected community to enable the Authority to start to receive applications and make awards in the shortest possible time, and we are already working very hard to achieve that.

“I will publish a more detailed statement about our work in the very near future.”