Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration she has given to introducing consistent and monitored training standards for school staff alongside the nationwide provision of defibrillators to schools.

The department’s defibrillator programme provided over 20,000 devices to eligible schools and was the largest distribution of defibrillators to date. Defibrillators are designed to be simple and safe to use without prior training and to talk the user through step-by-step instructions at the point of use.

As part of the rollout, the department provided awareness videos showing how simple defibrillators are to use and encouraged schools to share these videos in staff meetings and school assemblies, where appropriate.

The department's approach focused on building awareness and confidence in the use of defibrillators rather than introducing mandatory training or accreditation requirements. The devices will provide school staff with the confidence and reassurance that they have the tools to help save a life in an emergency.

All state-funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the relationships, sex and health education curriculum, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of a defibrillator for pupils aged over 12.