Defibrillators

I beg to move,

That this House has considered defibrillator access.

I thank everyone for being here. We often hear it said that people are generous with their time when they take interventions, but I think it is extremely generous for everyone to show up at 9.30 am for a debate like this. I will deliberately keep my comments brief so we can get as many people in as possible. I am grateful for this opportunity to talk about the need to build more national resilience by increasing access to defibrillators.

May I begin my remarks by paying tribute to my friend George Smith, who died yesterday from a heart attack? George was chair of the parish council in West Auckland and a former Durham county councillor. To everybody who knew him, he was a great man who always had a twinkle in his eye and an energy and desire to serve others. I do not know whether access to a defibrillator would have saved George, but I do know that the national survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK is just 8%. Let that sink in: only 8% of people survive. But we also know that the chances of survival increase by 70% where people have rapid access to a defibrillator within three to five minutes, saving the lives of our friends, family and neighbours.

In Bishop Auckland, which I represent, 51% of postcodes are outside the recommended distance for timely access to a defibrillator. We have 17 defibrillators per 10,000 people, which is above the national average, but that still falls far below the recommended 50 to 100 per 100,000 people. I ask the Minister what plans there are to address the stark regional disparities in coverage, particularly in rural areas and disadvantaged communities.

A constituent wrote to me recently to share the experience of her father. He had a cardiac arrest at work and his life was saved by rapid access to a defibrillator. She explained, though, that had he had that cardiac arrest at home—she looked this up—it would have taken her 30 minutes to get to the nearest defibrillator. So we know that there are huge gaps—defibrillator deserts—in national provision.

The Government’s community automated external defibrillator fund has been exhausted and all funds are allocated, with no plans for expansion. That fund delivered 3,000 defibrillators—a small fraction of the 100,000 defibrillators registered on the Circuit. Costs remain a major barrier, with community groups facing a cost of £2,500 per device and not getting VAT relief on that, which is a campaign we have fought previously. Will the Government therefore finally commit—I appreciate the Minister cannot comment on tax affairs, but she can pass this on to her colleagues—to removing VAT on defibrillator purchases, as has been done for other lifesaving equipment?

It is also important to note that registration on the Circuit is not the same as being accessible, because many devices are locked away in offices, schools or businesses and are not available 24/7. That makes survival even less likely for cardiac arrests outside of working hours. What steps are being taken to ensure that the national defibrillator database is accurate, up to date and reflects actual availability? Will the Department work with local authorities and community groups to ensure that placement is in genuinely accessible locations—outside buildings, in community hubs and transport stations?

Last year, I had the opportunity to host Jack Hurley here in Parliament. Jack is an outstanding young man. He had a cardiac arrest while playing football and his friends were able to access a defibrillator and perform CPR on him. It was great to see him standing tall and back doing the things that he loves. Jack has been campaigning for some time, and I want to pay tribute to him and his campaign. His story reminds us that behind every statistic is a family, including a young life that could be cut short or saved depending on access to a defibrillator.

Every Member here will have similar stories and will no doubt have been contacted by constituents asking for help in acquiring defibrillators. Many will have experienced seeing a loved one in a moment of peril. When I was just 11 years old, my mum collapsed with a seizure while we were at church. It was only by the good fortune of there being a paramedic in the congregation that her life was saved. Had that not been the case, I would have grown up without a mother.

This is about not only survival, but recovery. Early defibrillation means better neurological outcomes, shorter hospital stays, lower long-term costs to the NHS and a chance to turn the UK’s poor survival rate into something far more hopeful. We all know what works, so will the Government please act to ensure equitable access across every constituency?

We have a good attendance this morning. If hon. Members bob after a speech, whether or not they have put in to speak, that will enable us to do the complicated calculation of how much time we have. Rather than relying on me doing mental arithmetic on the hoof, the Clerk will calculate a reasonable solution.

Right—we will start with a three-minute time limit, which might have to be reduced. The actual calculation comes out at two and a half minutes, so I hope hon. Members will bear that in mind.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for bringing this debate to the House, and I wish him well in his recovery.

A few years ago, not many of us in rural Scotland would have known about the importance of defibrillators, and far less about how to use them in the unlikely event of something going wrong. But thanks to the efforts of one Scottish charity, Lucky2BHere, and the work of one individual, the late Ross Cowie of Portree, an old friend of mine, there are 1,000 public access defibrillators, and 5,000 people have been trained in their use over the past two decades by that one organisation.

Ross Cowie suffered a cardiac arrest in 2006 outside the clubhouse of Skye Camanachd, the island shinty team he led to victory in the 1990 cup final. His life was saved only because the local ambulance with a defibrillator happened to be passing by. His original aim was to install one external defibrillator outside his clubhouse in Portree, but the campaign has grown to deliver more than 1,000 defibs across rural Scotland, from Shetland to Dumfries. There is even one in the Flannan isles, 21 miles west of the Isle of Lewis and uninhabited apart from the ghosts of lighthouse keepers, but it is there should it be needed by passing fishermen or yachtsmen.

Just as important as its work in installing defibs, Lucky2BHere has trained thousands of volunteers to administer devices, to ensure that people know how to use them and the associated first aid emergency kit in the instance of cardiac arrest. We are all sometimes left feeling helpless. My hon. Friend mentioned his friend Jack Hurley, a footballer who collapsed while playing. We all remember the collapse of the Danish footballer Christian Eriksen during the Euro 2020 championship. That case highlighted the important difference between Denmark and the UK, because every Danish player on that field knew what to do in the case of cardiac arrest because they had been trained in school. That is a key difference between the UK, or Scotland, and Denmark. Training on defibs and lifesaving is compulsory in schools in Denmark. In Scotland, every local authority has committed to teach CPR in its secondary schools, yet as far as I know, it is up to individual schools to implement that, rather than its being mandatory.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I commend the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for securing this important debate.

I want to focus on a local charity in my constituency, Hearts for Herts. In 2017, my constituent Justin Honey-Jones, an experienced paramedic, began the mission to provide an inclusive education programme of lifesaving skills and to champion the provision of public access lifesaving equipment, all from his garage in Hoddesdon. Since then, he has personally trained more than 1,000 people in lifesaving skills, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds, with every penny used to provide and maintain lifesaving equipment.

In the last 18 months alone, the charity has installed 75 public access defibrillators across Hertfordshire, and it will install another 55 before February next year. I have been proud to attend many of the openings of those vital defibrillators across my constituency, including at Barclay Park, where the first solar-powered defibrillator in Hertfordshire is now in place, and at the Methodist church in Hoddesdon. Incredibly, just 36 hours after the defibrillator was installed at the church, it was used in a medical emergency.

Hearts for Herts rightly focuses its efforts on making defibrillators as accessible as possible and installing them where they are most useful to nearby residents. That aim is justified by stories such as that of the Methodist church defibrillator, and is driven forward by the charity’s unique aim to make all school defibrillators publicly accessible. At no cost to the school, Justin will organise the entire conversion process, ensuring that the crucial equipment can be accessed all year round, at any time of the day. That has saved lives: a converted defibrillator at Broxbourne school was activated on Christmas day, and over this year’s summer holidays the defibrillator at Wormley primary school has been used three times.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for securing this important debate. I know that the subject matters a great deal to constituents who have contacted me about defibrillators over the years.

I recently met a young woman in my constituency who told me about the cardiac arrest that her father experienced on the Derwent walk in January this year. Her dad was in his early 50s, with no prior major health issues, when he and his wife decided to take a walk in the snow. They were about two miles away from their home when he suffered a cardiac arrest. Although they were on a popular route for people across our region, and part of the famous coast-to-coast cycle path, there was no defibrillator within easy reach of him. Thankfully, nurses and policemen nearby were available to do CPR until the ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later, and he was able to make a recovery.

In April, however, he suffered a further cardiac arrest. He was found by his teenage daughters, who both work as lifeguards at Consett leisure centre in my constituency, and they were able to administer CPR while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. They were just 16 and 18 at the time. Their actions clearly saved their dad’s life. I commend their bravery at what must have been an incredibly frightening moment, but sadly people all too often cannot be revived by CPR after suffering a cardiac arrest. That is why it is so important that we make sure that defibrillators are easily accessible and that people know how to use them in emergencies.

As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland, MPs are regularly contacted by organisations that seek to fundraise and to tell us about incidents in which defibrillators have been used, which is really important. I say a massive thank you to all my constituents in Blaydon and Consett who have organised the installation of defibrillators across our communities, including the councillors, community partnerships and groups of volunteers who have fundraised to provide them. I applaud the efforts of those at Stargate and Crookhill community centre, who are currently doing exactly that to ensure that they can maintain their defibrillators.

As the MP for the South Cotswolds, I know that living in a rural area brings many blessings, but also some challenges. Ambulance wait times are nearly 50% longer in rural areas. When every second counts, that delay can make the difference between life and death. That is why access to defibrillators matters so profoundly.

Let me share the story of one of my constituents, Sonya Harris. In October 2023, Sonya collapsed outside her son’s school in Malmesbury after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. Only about one in 10 people survive such an event. Sonya was one of those lucky ones: someone nearby knew CPR, a defibrillator was close at hand and she received swift care from the NHS and her family. Without that chain of good luck, she would not be here, and her son would be growing up without a mother. But survival from cardiac arrest should not come down to luck; it should come down to preparation.

I recently visited a newly installed defibrillator in my constituency. With huge thanks to the Lechlade Lions, the South Western ambulance service and Gloucestershire street lighting, Lechlade and Fairford now have some of the best defibrillator coverage in the country. They have pioneered the use of lamp post power to run devices, the first scheme of its kind in the south-west, making installation simpler and cheaper.

We should be broadening that approach across the whole country. Every community, rural or urban, deserves the same safety net. I advocate for defibrillators as a standard requirement in the planning process for all new housing estates and industrial estates. If developers include them from the outset, the cost is very reasonable—far lower than the cost of trying to retrofit them later on. New estates should be designed so that no home is more than 400 metres from a defibrillator, because when cardiac arrest happens, every moment counts.

I sincerely thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for securing this important debate. I will focus on the maintenance of defibrillators, which is intrinsic to access to this lifesaving equipment. In my constituency of Crewe and Nantwich, it represents a very real challenge. I want to share a story about the gravity of the situation.

In September last year, my constituent collapsed in Nantwich town centre, from a suspected cardiac arrest. CPR was administered by the public on site and a 999 call was made. The operator directed the member of the public to a defibrillator in the town centre, only for the member of the public to find, when they opened it, that it did not work. Another call was then made to 999 and they were directed to another defibrillator, which meant another 10-minute delay in finally administering treatment. We all know how vital it is that quick treatment be provided in cases of cardiac arrest. Sadly, the man who had the cardiac arrest did not survive; he passed away later. We do not know whether finding a working defibrillator first might have saved his life, but I am almost certain that it would have helped. I ask the Minister what plans the Government have to better regulate the maintenance of defibrillators.

I have spoken at length about the situation with the British Heart Foundation, which operates the Circuit, and with the British Healthcare Trades Association, and it is clear that there are improvements that we could make. As of August 2024, in Crewe and Nantwich there were roughly seven defibrillators per 10,000 people. The national average is just 10. They recommend that there be between 50 and 100 defibrillators per 10,000 people. What is more, according to the British Heart Foundation, 46.4% of postcodes in Crewe and Nantwich are out of direct reach of a defibrillator. In a context in which we know that, with defib use, the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest increase from just 8% to above 70%, the existence of such defib deserts is clearly not acceptable.

I am experiencing exactly the same problem in Wolverhampton North East: I am sad to announce that almost 70% of postcodes are not within easy reach of a defibrillator. Local community groups are stepping up, but they can be hit with a VAT charge of anything between £200 and £500 per device. Does my hon. Friend agree that an important step forward would be to review VAT on defibrillators, to widen access?

My hon. Friend has almost taken the words out of my mouth, because I was about to move on to some of the steps that we could take to address this issue. She is absolutely right. Clearly there is an issue with the VAT; as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland, that is something that the Government should look at. It is also about ensuring that defibs are always accessible outside, about education on administering the equipment, about maintenance and about ensuring that defibs are on the Circuit wherever possible, because we know that in many cases they are not.

One thing is certain: inaction is not an option. This equipment saves lives. If we fail to act, we will continue to have avoidable deaths, unfortunately, as in the case of my constituent. The opportunity is there to save lives. I urge the Government to grip it.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for setting the scene so very well and for his generosity in allowing time for us all to participate.

My interest in defibrillators goes back to an incident outside a school in my constituency. A parent who was coming to collect a child collapsed outside the school. Due to the good work of those who were there—there was a nurse there—CPR saved him. After that, a defibrillator was installed at the school.

Hon. Members may be aware that in December 2020 I introduced a private Member’s Bill about public access to defibrillators. The Government made movements at the time, although the Bill did not pass. I was proud of the steps that were taken, as the need for action had been made clear by the British Heart Foundation, which has been instrumental in pushing the matter forward.

Some 1,400 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are reported in Northern Ireland every year, with fewer than 10% surviving. Public access defibrillators are now used in fewer than 5% of cardiac arrests that happen away from a hospital. When someone has a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces their chances of survival by about 10%. That was the rationale behind the Bill. I was pleased when the then UK youth education Minister and Health Minister, Jo Churchill, both reassured me that they would do all they could to ensure that schools and public areas would have ready access to AEDs, and that is what happened.

I have continued to press the Government on the issue. On 17 February, in answer to my question on access to defibrillators, the Minister wrote:

“The Government is committed to improving access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces, and reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in September 2023, the new Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.”

I thank my colleague and neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth), for securing this important debate.

Nearly half the postcodes in my constituency are not within easy reach of a defibrillator. That is not just a statistic, as we have heard; it is the difference between life and death. We know that when a defibrillator is used within three to five minutes of cardiac arrest, survival chances rise from just 8% to more than 70%, yet too often communities in Durham are left without timely access. This inequality is compounded by cost. Community groups, sports clubs and small businesses fundraising for devices face average VAT bills of £500 per defib. That is an unnecessary barrier to saving lives, so I join colleagues in urging the Government to look at abolishing the so-called heart restart tax.

One organisation that has done magnificent work in helping to get defibs into key locations across our region is Rotary North East, which has installed more than 100, including in Durham city centre. The work it does, particularly the work of my constituent Tom Sharples, has genuinely saved lives in the north east. Not only has Tom worked to roll out defibs across the region, in conjunction with our brilliant police community support officers for Brandon and Brancepeth, Paul and Dan, but he has invested his time in delivering training sessions for young people in those communities.

Following the harrowing scenes during the 2020 Euros, when Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch, I became determined to improve lifesaving equipment. I supported the roll-out of CPR training for young people across my constituency.

In 2021, I led a campaign that helped bring about a change in Football Association policy. Since then, all new FA-funded facilities must have a defibrillator as standard. That was an important step forward, but it is only part of the solution. Every day, 80 to 90 people die from cardiac arrest outside hospital, and many of those lives could have been saved. Wider availability of defibs would save lives, reduce pressure on our ambulance service and prevent the devastating long-term impact of brain injury and loss that follows so many of these cases. I urge the Government to act to close the defibrillator gap, end the postcode lottery and give every community, including mine in the City of Durham, the fair access that they deserve.