CPR questions to be added to driving theory test next year

LEARNER drivers are to be quizzed on their CPR skills in an update to the theory test.

- 

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) - which oversees driving tests in Britain - said motorists are often “first on the scene” when someone suffers a cardiac arrest.

Adding questions on CPR and defibrillators to the theory test from early next year means candidates will “have a better understanding of the skills to use in an emergency”, it added.

More than 40,000 people in the UK suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, with fewer than one in 10 surviving.

Research has found survival rates can be as high as 70% if CPR is given and a defibrillator used within three to five minutes of collapse.