Defibrillators

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank all hon. Members who have contributed to the debate. It has been really well attended, with over 20 Back-Bench contributions. I also thank the Front-Bench spokespeople for their contributions. I will try to respond to all the issues raised, but there have been a tremendous number, so if I cannot respond to them all, I will write to hon. Members on any that I do not cover.

I recognise the individuals who have been honoured by hon. Members, particularly Tom Sharples, Naomi Rees-Issitt, Dylan Rich and his family, and Andrew and Jeanette, all of whom have been appropriately recognised. I also particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for securing the debate. I was sorry to hear how his mum needed emergency resuscitation when he was a child, and I offer my deepest sympathies on the death of his friend and colleague, George Smith.

A cardiac arrest can be an incredibly frightening experience for a person and their loved ones. My hon. Friend knows that rapid access to defibrillators can be the difference between life and death. As he said, early defibrillation within three to five minutes of collapse can increase a person’s chances of survival by as much as 50% to 70%. Thanks to data collected by the British Heart Foundation, we know that AEDs are only used around one in 10 times where they could have saved a life. I am pleased to update the House on what the Government are doing to drive that figure upwards. Our 10-year plan for health is shifting the focus of our NHS from hospitals to community. It is right that local communities are leading the way through public bodies, businesses and charities. I commend the hard work of London Hearts, AED Donate and the Community Heartbeat Trust and other organisations raised today. Forgive me if I miss some of them: Hearts for Herts, Lucky2Bhere, Stargate & Crookhill Community Centre, Lechlade Lions, Friends of Frome Hospital, the Daniel Berg Foundation, Southport Saviours, the Paul Alan Project, Evanton Residents’ Association and Lauren’s campaign. There are many more organisations and projects working hard to improve access to AEDs for all.

There are now more than 110,000 AEDs across the UK registered on the Circuit, the independent AED database backed by the NHS. The Circuit continues to see a regular increase in the number of defibs registered. I was delighted to hear hon. Members talk about encouraging defib guardians in their areas to register. More than 30,000 have been added in the past two years alone and we look forward to more. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland highlighted, more than 3,000 were provided by the Department of Health and Social Care’s community defibrillator fund.

My hon. Friend also rightly pointed out gaps in provision across the UK. As someone who represents a rural constituency, I completely understand his position and that of hon. Members from other rural communities, many of whom spoke in today’s debate. That is why we have partnered with Smarter Society, which has helped us get AEDs to communities with the greatest need where they have the greatest impact. That includes remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and hotspots for cardiac arrests, such as sporting arenas, venues for vulnerable people and deprived areas.

We fully funded the first 100 devices distributed by the Smarter Society, and have committed to supporting communities by matching the funds they spend on defibrillators pound for pound. Local communities will determine where defibs are kept for the best response to the needs of their communities. Unfortunately, defibs sometimes get stolen and communities are best placed to decide whether they should be in locked cabinets. Some charities, such as the British Heart Foundation, insist that devices they provide are kept unlocked.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Douglas McAllister) made the interesting suggestion that the theft or damage of a defib should be a specified offence, which I will raise with relevant Ministers. If the defibrillator is registered on the Circuit, the national AED network, the guardian will receive regular reminders to record checks on the AED. To support maintenance, the Circuit sends guardians notifications and records when an AED is used, so as to notify the guardian that pads will need to be replaced.

Many hon. Members referred to training. AEDs are designed to be simple yet lifesaving devices that anyone can use without formal training. That said, training can help people use defibrillators with greater confidence. The NHS runs training sessions on first aid, CPR and the use of defibrillators in communities and schools, to support Resuscitation Council UK’s “Restart a Heart” initiative. The NHS England has trained more than 35,800 adults and children in CPR and defibrillation in the past 13 years, and more than 2,100 people since January 2025. NHS England also runs workshops in harder-to-reach communities and ethnically diverse groups, training more than 400 people this year.

I was interested to hear the shadow Minister’s comments about women, and some people’s reluctance to use defibs. I will speak to the Minister responsible for women’s health about how that can be improved.

Many Members raised ambulance response times, which the Government are determined to improve so that people can be reassured that help is on the way. Our urgent and emergency care plan commits to reducing ambulance response times for category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are tackling unacceptable handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, ensuring that ambulances are released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients. I am pleased that in the region of my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland the latest figures show that average response times for category 1—the most serious, life-threatening cases—were six minutes and 13 seconds, which is faster than the national standard of seven minutes. The hard work of paramedics, clinicians and NHS staff makes that possible, and I commend them for that. We will continue to do all we can from Government to support those improvements and reduce variation in response times across the country.

Many hon. Members who spoke today raised the issue of VAT on devices and parts. I do not want the provision of defibrillators in communities to be a matter of cost—I will discuss that with Treasury colleagues. Decisions on VAT are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor. I will make sure that Treasury colleagues are aware of the issues raised in this debate today. The Government will continue to keep the matter under review.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland spoke powerfully about the prevention issues. Anyone who has read our 10-year plan for the NHS will know that he is pushing at an open door on that with this Government, because our ambition to cut premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within a decade is a key tenet of our 10-year plan. We are making that shift from treatment to prevention. While we are tough on treating cardiac arrest, we will act on what public health doctors call the “causes of the causes”, with action on smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and access to green spaces for exercise. This year we have set targets for integrated care boards to increase the percentage of patients with GP-recorded CVD who have their cholesterol levels managed to safer levels. Almost nine in 10 people with GP-recorded hypertension in England had their blood pressure checked in the last year, and more than two thirds had their blood pressure treated to target in the last year.

The NHS health check programme engages over 1.4 million people and, through behavioural and clinical interventions, prevents around 500 heart attacks or strokes a year. We are also making the shift from analogue to digital. To improve the programme’s uptake and engagement we are developing the NHS health check online, which will be available through the NHS app.

The Opposition’s shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), spoke about the national curriculum review. I will ensure that the issues are raised with my colleagues in the Department for Education. I was very interested to hear the ideas and thoughts of the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller), on innovation; I commit to exploring that further.

I once again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland for securing this important debate. I look forward to working with him long into the future to get stuff done. I hope we have shown that the Government are committed to shifting the focus from hospital to community, moving care closer to people through community-based initiatives and targets, and embracing the digital transformation of the NHS. Together those shifts will mean healthier communities, more lives saved and an NHS fit for the future.