CPR and Resuscitation Guidelines: What Is Current in the UK

Resuscitation guidance is reviewed on a rolling basis by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and the European Resuscitation Council, and Resuscitation Council UK publishes the UK version. The 2025 Guidelines are the product of a four-year process and are what UK first aid training now follows.

If you last did a first aid course some years ago, this page tells you what is current — and what has genuinely changed.

The numbers at a glance

Adult basic life support: the current sequence

1. Check for danger and make sure it is safe to approach.
2. Check for a response. Gently shake the shoulders and ask loudly if they are all right.
3. Open the airway and check breathing.
4. Call 999 and ask for an ambulance. Put the phone on speaker so your hands stay free.
5. Send someone for an AED if anyone else is present.
6. Start chest compressions: heel of one hand on the lower half of the sternum, the other hand on top with fingers interlocked, arms straight, shoulders directly above the chest. Compress at 100–120 per minute, at least 5 cm but not more than 6 cm deep, allowing the chest to recoil fully between compressions.
7. If trained and willing, add rescue breaths — 30 compressions to 2 breaths. If you are not trained, or are unwilling to give breaths, give continuous compressions without stopping.
8. Use the AED as soon as it arrives. Follow its spoken prompts, attach the pads to bare skin, make sure nobody is touching the person while it analyses, and restart compressions immediately after any shock.

What changed in the 2025 guidelines

The compression numbers did not change. What changed is around them:

• Calling 999 earlier. Rescuers are now directed to call 999 without first having to confirm that breathing is abnormal — you assess while the call is connecting, rather than delaying the call to be sure. In an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the minutes spent deciding are the minutes that matter.
• Recognising cardiac arrest in athletes. The guidance now acknowledges that breathing immediately after a collapse can look near-normal or appear as panting, rather than only the slow, laboured pattern people are usually taught to look for. Sudden cardiac arrest in sport is easy to mistake for something less serious.
• Support for the rescuer. The guidelines now recognise explicitly that lay rescuers may need psychosocial support after attempting resuscitation. Attempting CPR on someone is a significant thing to go through, and most attempts are not successful.

That last point deserves more attention than it usually gets. If someone at your workplace performs CPR, they will need more than a debrief about the incident log.

Recognising cardiac arrest

The single most common reason bystanders do not start CPR is that they are not sure the person needs it. Two things to know:

• Agonal breathing. In the first minutes after a cardiac arrest, a person may take occasional gasping, snoring or irregular breaths. This is not normal breathing and it is not a sign of recovery. It is one of the commonest reasons CPR is delayed.
• If they are unresponsive and not breathing normally, start CPR. You do not need to be certain, and you will not seriously harm someone whose heart is still beating — they will respond and you can stop.

Why the compression numbers matter

The rate and depth are not arbitrary. Too shallow and you do not generate circulation; too deep and you cause injury without additional benefit. Too fast and the chest cannot recoil, so the heart does not refill between compressions.

These are also the numbers hardest to get right without practice, which is the honest argument for hands-on training rather than watching a video. Most people’s instinct is to compress too fast and not deeply enough, and 5 cm is considerably firmer than people expect.

The other thing practice teaches is how tiring it is. Effective CPR is exhausting within two minutes, and quality drops long before the rescuer notices. Where more than one trained person is present, swap every two minutes.

Children and infants

Paediatric resuscitation differs meaningfully from adult, which is why childcare settings need Paediatric First Aid rather than a workplace course. The practical differences are taught and practised properly on that course.

Defibrillators: the single biggest factor

Survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest falls with every minute that passes before defibrillation. An AED talks the user through the process, will not deliver a shock unless it detects a shockable rhythm, and requires no training to operate — though familiarisation makes people far more likely to actually reach for it.

If your workplace has an AED, three things are worth checking today:

• Do people know where it is? Ask five people at random. If three of them do not know, that is your problem, not the device.
• Are the pads and battery in date? Both expire, and both are silent about it unless somebody checks.
• Is it registered? Public-access defibrillators can be registered on the national defibrillator network so that ambulance call handlers can direct a caller to the nearest one.

If you do not have one, see our defibrillators and equipment.

Where this fits with your training

Every first aid course we deliver teaches the current Resuscitation Council UK guidelines. If your certificate is a few years old, the sequence you were taught is largely the same — but the emphasis on calling early and defibrillating fast has sharpened, and it is worth refreshing.

Deals

Emergency First Aid at Work Group Course – Sale: £295.00 for up to 12 people £495.00 Original price was: £495.00.£295.00Current price is: £295.00. Excluding Vat View course →

First Aid at Work Courses

Emergency First Aid at Work Group Course £495.00 Excluding Vat View course → Emergency First Aid Open Course £85.00 Excluding Vat View course → First Aid at Work Group Course £945.00 – £1,145.00Price range: £945.00 through £1,145.00 Excluding Vat View course → First Aid at Work Open Course £185.00 Excluding Vat View course → First Aid at Work ReQual Open Course £95.00 Excluding Vat View course → Paediatric First Aid Group Course £650.00 – £750.00Price range: £650.00 through £750.00 Excluding Vat View course → Paediatric First Aid Open Course £105.00 Excluding Vat View course →

HSE strongly recommends annual refresher training between three-yearly requalifications. It is not a legal requirement, but this is exactly the kind of change it exists to catch. See how long a first aid certificate lasts.

For the wider picture — what the law requires, the minimum every employer must have, how many first aiders, which course, certificates and the 2024 changes to HSE’s guidance — see our guide to workplace first aid requirements.

Children are a different sequence

The guidelines above describe adult resuscitation. Paediatric basic life support is genuinely different: it begins with five rescue breaths before any compressions, because in children the heart usually stops because breathing failed first. We set out what that involves in baby and child CPR.

Refresh your training

If your team was last trained on an older set of guidelines, a refresher brings them up to date. Call 0845 838 4643 or use the enquiry form on this page.