Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the teaching of first aid a compulsory part of the curriculum in schools.

Schools are free to teach first aid, and many schools already choose to teach lifesaving as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. 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.

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 requires the Secretary of State to make Relationships Education mandatory in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) mandatory in all secondary schools through regulations. The Act also provides for a power to make PSHE, or elements therein, mandatory in all schools, subject to careful consideration.

The Department has conducted the first stage of a thorough and planned engagement process with a call for evidence which closed on 12 February, on the scope and content of Relationships Education and RSE, and on the future status of PSHE.