Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many instances of sudden cardiac arrest have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years.

The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported access to defibrillators.

Applicants will be asked to demonstrate that defibrillators will be placed in areas where they are most needed, such as places with high footfall, longer emergency medical response times and deprived areas

No assessment has been made of the potential fiscal impact of increasing the number of AEDs available to the public on healthcare services. The number of instances of sudden cardiac arrest that have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years is not available centrally.