Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial support his Department has provided for the purchase of defibrillators for installation in public places in the last five years; what recent assessment he has made of the need to install community defibrillators in public places; and what steps he is taking to support the installation of more defibrillators in public places.

In 2015/16, we provided £2 million to increase the availability of Automated External Defibrillators and the number of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Since then, we have encouraged communities and organisations across England to consider purchasing a defibrillator as part of first-aid equipment, particularly in locations where there are high concentrations of people. Many community defibrillators have since been provided through national lottery funding, community fundraising schemes, workplace funding or by charities

No recent assessment has been made of the need to install community defibrillators in public places. The NHS Long Term Plan has a programme funded in 2022/23 which includes national projects to improve bystander response in relation to out of hospital cardiac arrests.