More than a quarter of adults in Scotland would not perform life-saving CPR if they saw someone suffer a cardiac arrest, research has revealed.

A study carried out by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has shown that just 26 per cent of Scots would not carry out cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) due to a lack of knowledge or confidence.

The figures were released today as part of Restart a Heart Day, a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of learning CPR skills , which will today see over 200,000 people across the UK trained in CPR.

As a result, BHF Scotland are today stepping up their calls for local authorities across Scotland to commit to ensuring that all pupils leave secondary school equipped with these life saving skills.

James Cant, director of BHF Scotland, said: “CPR may be the difference between life and death for thousands of Scots every year who suffer a cardiac arrest. Every second counts, and it simply isn’t enough to hope that someone who knows CPR is present.

“We’ve made great progress in Scotland this year, with ten councils now signed up to make sure their pupils learn this essential skill. And we were delighted to see the commitment from the SNP at last week’s party conference to encourage their local authorities to back the campaign.

“But there is still so much more to be done so that everyone in Scotland has the knowledge and confidence to step in and give CPR when someone collapses after a cardiac arrest. Restart a Heart Day is the ideal date to call on the remaining councils in Scotland to make this commitment to help save lives.”

The proposal supports the Scotland’s Got Heart Campaign, launched earlier this year by the Evening Times to help tackle the high rate of cardiac arrest deaths in Glasgow.

People in Glasgow are more likely to die from a cardiac arrest than anywhere else in the UK and are also less likely to get the first aid that could save their life.

Those who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK have less than a 10 per cent chance of surviving, but chances of survival double if it happens in front of a bystander who immediately starts CPR.

In countries where CPR is taught in schools, as many as one in four survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Earlier this year, Glasgow became the first council in the UK to pledge to roll-out CPR training to all pupils. So far nine local authorities have committed to ensuring their pupils leave secondary school with the life-saving skills.

After passing a motion at SNP conference earlier this month, it is believed that a further 10 councils could follow suit.

The Scottish Government has also pledged to equip an additional 500,000 people with CPR skills by 2020.