Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage community organisations, schools, and workplaces in Farnham and Bordon to register their Automated External Defibrillators on the Circuit Defibrillator Network.

In order to increase survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest NHS England has worked in partnership with St John’s Ambulance and others to increase access to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training. Local ambulance trusts, charities, including St John’s Ambulance and the British Heart Foundation, and private providers deliver CPR training and training on the use of defibrillators both in the community and in schools, under the Restart a Heart programme.

The Government’s position is that local communities, including in Farnham and Bordon, are best placed to make decisions about procuring, locating, and maintaining automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Over 110,000 defibrillators are registered in the United Kingdom on The Circuit, the independent AED database. Over 30,000 of these have been added in the past two years, many as a result of local community led action.

It is not uncommon for charities supplying defibrillators through a fund to require those defibrillators to be registered on The Circuit. Defibrillator charities also promote The Circuit on their website.