All secondary schools to teach CPR

All of Scotland’s secondary schools will teach pupils how to perform life-saving CPR after the county’s 32 local authorities committed to a new training programme.

Each year, an estimated 50,000 pupils across Scotland will learn how to resuscitate someone having a cardiac arrest, following a campaign by charity the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

All 32 Scottish councils have now signed up to the Nation of Lifesavers campaign, less than a year since it launched.

About 3,500 Scots suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, according to the BHF, which said the survival rate is currently one in 12.

The chance of survival drops by up to 10 per cent for each minute that passes without CPR, and medics say thousands of lives could be saved by teaching more children how to resuscitate someone.