Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve the survival rates of out of hospital cardiac arrests; and what role automatic external defibrillators will play in those plans.

The Government recognises that better provision of defibrillators and increasing the number of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could help save more lives of those who have a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting. We therefore encourage organisations to consider purchasing a defibrillator as part of their first-aid equipment, particularly for places where there are high concentrations of people.

The Department published the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which highlighted the importance of CPR and availability of Public Access Defibrillators.

NHS England has advised that, since the publication of the Strategy, the Community Resuscitation Steering Group (CRSG) has taken steps to address issues relating to CVD outcomes.

These steps include:

- HM Treasury allocated two tranches of £1 million each to purchasing more Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has supervised its distribution; and

- UK Resuscitation Council, BHF, and Arrhythmia Alliance have all undertaken campaigns to increase awareness of CPR and availability of PADs.