Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking to steps to help increase public access to defibrillators in areas of deprivation with a high incidence of cardiac arrest.

The Government’s £1 million Community Automated External Defibrillators (AED) fund will provide an estimated 1,000 new defibrillators across England, with the potential for this to double as successful applicants will be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully.

As of 22 September 2022, community organisations can now apply for a grant to fund an AED for their local area. Applications for funding will be submitted to Smarter Society and the London Hearts Charity, who will assess each application, ensuring that each AED is installed in areas where there is a clear need for the device such as high footfall areas or rural locations with extended ambulance response times. Priority will be given to applications that are considered a cardiac health hotspot with high levels of deprivation and low numbers of AEDs.

All AEDs granted by the fund must be registered on The Circuit, which is the British Heart Foundation’s national defibrillator database.