Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will assess the potential merits of including cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the student curriculum.

Schools are already able to teach emergency first aid and life-saving skills in a variety of ways, for example through the wider curriculum, assemblies or Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. In doing so, schools are able to draw on curriculum materials from expert organisations such as the PSHE Association and free teaching kits such as those from the British Heart Foundation.

As part of our reforms to relationships education and relationships and sex education, the Department has been considering whether to make PSHE education compulsory. This has included holding a call for evidence and engaging with organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance. We will be publishing the results from this engagement shortly, alongside revised statutory guidance, before the guidance and the associated regulations, are debated in Parliament.