Written question asked by Afzal Khan (Labour) on Thursday, 27 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 December 2025. It was answered by Ashley Dalton (Labour) on Thursday, 11 December 2025 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Heart Diseases: Women

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve public confidence in performing CPR on women experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Answer: NHS England runs training sessions on first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the use of defibrillators both in the community and in schools, under the Restart a Heart programme. This training should help to increase confidence in performing CPR on women. NHS England has trained over 35,800 adults and children in CPR and defibrillation in the last 13 years, and 2,134 this year so far. NHS England delivers the sessions via their resuscitation team and via their community first responders.

Secondary information