Justin Tomlinson
Main Page: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)Department Debates - View all Justin Tomlinson's debates with the Department for Education
(9 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Gibb
My hon. Friend makes an important point. This is an increasing trend and we have to make it very clear in our schools that this form of behaviour in our schools is unacceptable. The guidance issued by the Department makes it clear that issues such as consent have to be taught in our sex and relationship education lessons.
Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)
19. What steps she is taking to promote the teaching of emergency life-saving skills in schools.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)
Three in a row. Schools are free to teach emergency life-saving skills and may choose to do so as part of personal, social, health and economic education. The Department, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, is encouraging schools to purchase automated external defibrillators and has made arrangements to help them do so at a competitive price. We have also published a guide to defibrillators on school premises, in which we suggest that schools may wish to consider offering cardiopulmonary resuscitation training throughout the school.
Justin Tomlinson
Of the 30,000 cardiac arrests that occur outside the hospital setting each year, only one in 10 people survive. Will the Minister agree to meet me and the British Heart Foundation to discuss how, in countries where two hours of emergency life-saving skills are taught, survival rates often increase to up to 50%?
Mr Gibb
I agree that first aid and life-saving skills are very important, but the Government do not believe that it should be a statutory requirement for schools to teach those skills. We trust schools to make their own decisions about what is best in their circumstances. Many schools do choose to teach these skills, working with organisations such as the British Heart Foundation or St John Ambulance. I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend to consider what more can be done to promote these programmes in schools.