Judge issues Hep C probe deadline

More than 4,000 people were infected with Hep C before effective screening

Ministers have been given a deadline of a month to arrange an inquiry into the deaths of two people from Hepatitis C contracted through NHS blood products.

Relatives went to court to try to force the authorities to hold an inquiry into how Eileen O'Hara and Rev David Black contracted the virus while in NHS care.

After a judge ruled in favour of the families early last year, ministers said a public inquiry would be set up.

However, eight months later, no date has been set and no judge appointed.

Last February, Court of Session judge Lord Mackay ruled that Mrs O'Hara and Mr Black's relatives had the right to expect a reasonably prompt inquiry into the deaths.

In a supplementary opinion issued on Wednesday he said he was giving the Scottish Government and Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini four to five weeks to comply with his original ruling and set up the inquiry.

Mrs O'Hara and Mr Black died in 2003 after contracting Hepatitis C through blood transfusions or blood products supplied by the NHS.

They were among more than 4,000 people who became infected with the virus during the 1980s, before effective screening was brought in.