Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds a record of the number of people in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools that have been trained to administer CPR.

All state funded schools in England are required to teach first aid as part of statutory health education which includes basic first aid. Pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, such as how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the purpose of defibrillators. Schools may also incorporate further CPR and defibrillator awareness and training materials as part of the wider curriculum.

As part of the Ofsted assessment of a school’s support for pupils’ personal development, inspectors make a professional judgement on whether the school is providing appropriate and effective teaching in the range of curriculum subjects, including Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). Schools are accountable for what they teach and should ensure that all RSHE content is factual, age appropriate and suitable for their pupils. As part of their personal development judgement, inspectors would discuss with schools whether they teach RSHE content in line with the RSHE statutory guidance.

To complement teaching on CPR, in July 2022, the Government committed to ensuring that all state funded schools in England have access to a defibrillator. This programme is now completed. Through this programme the Department provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools across England.