Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring (a) taxis, (b) buses, (c) hire cars and (d) other vehicles used for (i) public and (ii) quasi-public purposes to carry automated external defibrillators.

The Department has not assessed mandating these vehicles to carry defibrillators. In England outside London, commercial bus operators provide the majority of bus services and have responsibility for managing their fleets. Any decision on whether to fit buses with defibrillators is one for operators to make, and some have taken the decision to equip their depots with these.

Similarly, it would be the decision for individual taxi and private hire vehicle operators to decide to carry defibrillators.