Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help ensure that defibrillators which have reached the end of their operational life will in state-funded schools in England will be replaced and funded by her Department.

In 2023, the department provided over 20,000 defibrillators to state-funded schools in England. The programme aimed to ‘plug the gaps’ in existing provision to ensure that all schools have access to a device.

Defibrillators provided by the department are fully supported for the eight-year lifecycle of the device. New pads will be delivered automatically every two years, and replacement batteries provided four years after the initial delivery.

For schools who have existing defibrillators and for schools who wish to purchase additional defibrillators, the department has worked with the NHS to set up Defibs4Schools, which provides devices and consumables of a suitable specification. More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automated-external-defibrillators-aeds-in-schools.

Following completion of the programme, the department will evaluate the impact of the rollout to inform future decisions.