Defibrillators

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for setting the scene so very well and for his generosity in allowing time for us all to participate.

My interest in defibrillators goes back to an incident outside a school in my constituency. A parent who was coming to collect a child collapsed outside the school. Due to the good work of those who were there—there was a nurse there—CPR saved him. After that, a defibrillator was installed at the school.

Hon. Members may be aware that in December 2020 I introduced a private Member’s Bill about public access to defibrillators. The Government made movements at the time, although the Bill did not pass. I was proud of the steps that were taken, as the need for action had been made clear by the British Heart Foundation, which has been instrumental in pushing the matter forward.

Some 1,400 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are reported in Northern Ireland every year, with fewer than 10% surviving. Public access defibrillators are now used in fewer than 5% of cardiac arrests that happen away from a hospital. When someone has a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces their chances of survival by about 10%. That was the rationale behind the Bill. I was pleased when the then UK youth education Minister and Health Minister, Jo Churchill, both reassured me that they would do all they could to ensure that schools and public areas would have ready access to AEDs, and that is what happened.

I have continued to press the Government on the issue. On 17 February, in answer to my question on access to defibrillators, the Minister wrote:

“The Government is committed to improving access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces, and reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in September 2023, the new Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.”

Who has filled the gap? It has been local charities and community groups. The Orange lodges have provided one in Newtownards in the past month, and another just before that in Craigantlet. The British Heart Foundation has opened a charity shop in the Ards shopping centre; the funds that it raises will save lives. I say a big thank you to all of them.

Clearly, we need effective, accessible defibrillators throughout communities as a standard, not as a bonus. Will the Minister give us some indication of discussions with the relevant Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly to ascertain whether there is a policy to move these things forward in a positive way? I fully support those calls. I was pleased that the Northern Ireland Assembly introduced a number of such measures through the then Education Minister, Peter Weir, who now sits in the other place.

I believe that more can and should be done to educate the general public to be fully confident in how to use defibrillators. Local churches, community groups and coffee shops should all have people who are trained and able to step in when needed. I commend the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland for moving the motion today; I will stand with him in this place as we seek to take steps to make a difference.