Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of the proposed National Police Service and its procurement functions establishing a national minimum standard for the provision of automated external defibrillators in operational police response vehicles.

The Home Office recognises the important role police officers can play when they are first on the scene of a medical emergency, including suspected cardiac arrests. Police officers are trained to provide emergency first aid and CPR until specialist medical assistance arrives. Presently, the procurement and deployment of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for police vehicles is an operational matter for individual chief officers and police forces.

We expect procurement functions will transition into the National Police Service (NPS) as part of its phased implementation, facilitating national procurement of technologies. The onset of these functions is subject to further design and transition planning.

The Home Office is working with policing and external partners in health, other emergency services and the private sector to determine the policy position and potential procurement options for a national minimum standard of provision of defibrillators in police vehicles under the powers of the NPS once established. Any introduction of such standards will require careful consideration of policing’s primary function in tackling crime and capacity to take on additional first response health activities.