Another Friday in the House of Commons yesterday and another worthy but, in my opinion, inappropriate Bill being brought forward. This time  a Bill to make it compulsory to teach emergency  first aid in state funded secondary schools.

I entirely agree it is a good thing for more people to learn first aid skills but to force schools into teaching it is not the right way forward.

I think it should be left to schools to decide what other subjects outside of the core subjects should be taught. Many schools already teach first aid skills. There were many problems with the detail of the Bill too. For example, it was not clear how long the lessons were expected to be or indeed whether there was to be any assessment as to whether the pupils had leant the skills and learnt them properly. There was no indication of the actual cost or indeed of where the money would come from.

There are many voluntary organisations which provide excellent training on first aid and hopefully after the publicity over the Bill more people will decide to learn first aid skills.

I did a first aid badge when I was in the Scouts but it was years ago and I am not sure I would feel confident today about using those skills now so periodical updating is also, I think, essential.