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 improve survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing access to defibrillators by mandating them to be located in out of hospital settings.

NHS England is working with partners to improve community first response and build defibrillator networks to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest. A national network of community first responders and defibrillators will save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028, supported by educating the public on recognising and responding to a cardiac arrest.

No recent assessment of mandating defibrillators in out of hospital settings has been made. The Government has encouraged communities and organisations in England to consider purchasing a defibrillator as part of first-aid equipment, specifically in densely populated areas.