A NORTH-EAST campaigner for sufferers of the human form of mad cow disease has described reports that families are to receive £25,000 compensation from the Government as an "insult".

Frances Hall, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, whose 20-year-old son, Peter, died of the variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, said she suspects the money will be an interim payment for the 83 families of victims of the disease.

An unconfirmed report in a Sunday newspaper failed to make clear whether the money due be offered later this week was a final or interim payment.

Mrs Hall, who has been campaigning for compensation since she established the national campaign group the Human BSE Foundation, said she could not believe the Government would offer such a derisory payment.

"It would be an insult and there's no way we could accept it. I'm sure it is an interim payment, and if it is we would be very happy with that," she said.

The families' solicitor, David Body, of the firm Irwin Mitchell, said he had been informed that the £25,000 payment would be an interim payment.

But Government lawyers have warned that larger payments could eventually leave it open to a huge compensation bill if the death toll finally runs into thousands.

Health Secretary and Darlington MP Alan Milburn is expected to make an announcement on the payments in the House of Commons tomorrow.

So far seven people from the North-East have been confirmed as having died of the variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.