Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the merits of including training in the use of Epinephrene auto-injectors in guidance for first aid training course providers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for regulating first aid provision in the workplace, as set out in the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, but is no longer responsible for the regulation of general workplace first aid training.

The training syllabus for first aid at work requires workplace first aiders to be trained in administering first aid to a casualty in anaphylactic shock; training providers may choose to include the use of adrenaline (epinephrine) auto-injectors as part of this. It is the employer’s responsibility to conduct a first aid needs assessment. If this highlighted a need for training around the use of auto-injectors it would be for them to identify a suitable training provider.