Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, If he will make it his policy to create a publicly accessible national database of defibrillators: and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of such a database.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes and the Department has made no assessment.
We do not hold information on the number of defibrillators in each English region. NHS England along with partners have developed The Circuit, a national defibrillator network database. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Circuit is live in in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators 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, vulnerable people or due to the nature of activity at the site.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the availability of defibrillators by postcode and the sudden cardiac arrest incident rate in regions of the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes and the Department has made no assessment.
We do not hold information on the number of defibrillators in each English region. NHS England along with partners have developed The Circuit, a national defibrillator network database. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Circuit is live in in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators 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, vulnerable people or due to the nature of activity at the site.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the availability of defibrillators indifferent regions of the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes and the Department has made no assessment.
We do not hold information on the number of defibrillators in each English region. NHS England along with partners have developed The Circuit, a national defibrillator network database. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Circuit is live in in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators 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, vulnerable people or due to the nature of activity at the site.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes and the Department has made no assessment.
We do not hold information on the number of defibrillators in each English region. NHS England along with partners have developed The Circuit, a national defibrillator network database. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Circuit is live in in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators 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, vulnerable people or due to the nature of activity at the site.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of defibrillators in each English region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to mandate the location of defibrillators in all businesses and newly built homes and the Department has made no assessment.
We do not hold information on the number of defibrillators in each English region. NHS England along with partners have developed The Circuit, a national defibrillator network database. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Circuit is live in in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators 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, vulnerable people or due to the nature of activity at the site.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether further resilience measures are planned for the Emergency Services Network following recent storms in the North East of Scotland.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) works closely with user organisations and EE to enhance levels of resilience across the ESN network. This includes enhancing power resilience across the ESN network by deploying standby alternative power solutions in the event of mains power being lost.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) protocols and (b) memoranda of understanding are in place between (i) Police Scotland and (ii) the security services.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Security Service Act of 1989 places the Security Service under the authority of a Secretary of State, in practice the Home Secretary, who is accountable to Parliament for their work. This Act sets the overarching working protocol between the Security Service and the Home Secretary.
To support the delivery of the Act, there are more detailed agreements that set out delivery of the Home Secretary’s oversight responsibilities, including a framework agreement formerly referred to as the Protocols.
Police Scotland are a devolved competence and there is no formal relationship between the Home Office and Police Scotland. The Home Office and Police Scotland have a Memorandum of Understanding in relation to three areas: data sharing, Police and Public Protection Technology and the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP). In relation to ESMCP and in recognition of section 4 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the Memorandum of Understanding is signed by the Scottish Police Authority, agreeing the terms under which the Home Secretary will provide the relevant mobile communications network services to the Authority for the purpose of its maintenance of Police Scotland.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken alongside the Scottish Government to accelerate the activation of Extended Area Services sites in Scotland.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Emergency Services Network (ESN) has activated seven Extended Area Services sites in Scotland so far, this means that the sites are connected to the ESN network and are capable of housing commercial networks. Six of the sites are in conjunction with the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) which is funded by the Scottish Government. EAS has a further 17 sites in progress with SFT, with another four going live in the next 6-8 weeks, good progress is being made with the SFT and Scottish Government in the delivery and activation of these sites. EAS is also in the process of building and activating the remaining 99 sites which form the 123 EAS site coverage in Scotland. These are made up mostly of greenfield sites with 24 site shares also being utilised.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in expanding communications network coverage in rural areas; and what plans they have to share the resources used by the Emergency Services Network to achieve such coverage.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government’s £1 billion Shared Rural Network (SRN) agreement with the Mobile Network Operators, will see the operators collectively increase 4G mobile coverage to 95% by the end of the programme. While the programme is still in its early stages, we anticipate that areas of the UK will see improvements in coverage long before its completion. On 27 January 2021, the operators O2, Three and Vodafone announced a joint venture to build and share 222 new mobile masts to boost rural coverage across the United Kingdom and deliver the first stage of the SRN. This will see 124 new sites built in Scotland, 33 in Wales, 11 in Northern Ireland, and 54 in England.
Furthermore, on 24 February, EE announced it will be expanding 4G in more than 500 areas in this year to improve rural connectivity across the UK as part of the programme. This will include 333 in England, 132 in Scotland, 76 in Wales, and 38 in Northern Ireland. 110 areas have already been upgraded since the SRN deal was signed, with a further 469 to follow this year in the first phase of the programme.
The Government is committed to delivering value for money for the taxpayer by sharing infrastructure where possible for the Shared Rural Network. The Home Office will make the Extended Area Service (EAS) infrastructure, which is part of the new Emergency Services Network (ESN), available to all mobile operators for deployment as part of SRN. In some specific cases, SRN site upgrades may not be possible due to insurmountable practical or cost barriers.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason her Department has limited the scope of its partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver sites that were formerly part of the Extended Area Service programme under the Scottish 4G Infill Programme; and what plans her Department has to expand the scope of that partnership.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The EAS sites are principally built to support the emergency services, however where possible HO will collaborate with the Scottish 4G Infill Programme and other government initiatives such as the Shared Rural Network, the scope of this collaboration extends to all 292 EAS masts. There are currently 18 SFT sites where Home Office are utilising as part of a site share. These 18 sites meet the ESN coverage requirements and we continue to assess viability of other sites which meet both HO and Scottish 4G Infill Programme criteria.