THE probe into the blood contamination scandal that led to the deaths of 2,400 people will be a 'full statutory inquiry', Downing Street confirms.

Oxfordshire campaigners have been searching for answers as to how patients were infected with hepatitis C and HIV from tainted blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

Now the inquiry will come under the responsibility of the Cabinet Office after victims and families 'expressed strong views' over the potential involvement of the Department of Health (DoH). 

Downing Street said there had been around 800 responses to the consultation in setting up the inquiry.

Last month Prime Minister Theresa May revealed to the local Norwich newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, that the inquiry would not be run by the DoH.

One of the victims, Neil Weller, of Southmoor, near Abingdon, told the Oxford Mail he would not have had any faith in the inquiry were it to be run by the DoH.