Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2022 to Question 94337 on Schools: Air Conditioning, whether Ministers made any request to civil servants overseeing procurement for the filtration device marketplace in respect of encouraging the procurement of devices made in the UK at any stage during that process.

On 2 January, the department announced that up to 7,000 air cleaning units are being made available for mainstream state-funded providers for the very few cases where maintaining good ventilation is not possible. Deliveries will start in February. This is in addition to the 1,000 units made available for special and alternative provision providers that we announced in November. Deliveries of these units are already underway.

The department has also launched an online marketplace which provides schools, colleges and nurseries with a route to purchasing air cleaning units at a suitable specification and competitive price. This is available at: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning. In future, we may review this list and, as more products which meet our specification become available, these will be added. All purchases through the marketplace are managed by the supplier, rather than by the department.

The department’s decision to make air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated spaces in education and care providers has been informed by Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice and external consultation with specialists. When used properly, air cleaning units can help reduce airborne contaminants in a poorly ventilated space, including viruses like COVID-19.  Air cleaning units are not a substitute for ventilation and should never be used as a reason to reduce ventilation. They are not necessary in spaces that are adequately ventilated.

All air cleaning units provided by the department have met an approved technical specification. The department’s technical specification used to assess the units was developed through a rigorous consultation with industry-wide experts in both air cleaning and ventilation from academia, professional bodies, and industry, including chartered engineers, scientists, and several government departments. Through this consultation, we have developed a specification specific to education focusing on key drivers including classroom size, acoustics, clean air delivery and filtration, as well as requiring strong evidence to verify manufacturers' claims.

There were no requests received from ministers in the procurement process for air cleaning units and establishment of the online marketplace. This includes any requests to encourage the purchase of air cleaning units manufactured in the UK. Air cleaning units that met the approved technical specification were included on the marketplace, and units were only excluded if they failed to meet the technical specification. All the suppliers’ bids were subject to independent expert scrutiny to maintain objectivity and conformance to the specification.

Interim findings from the Bradford trial of air cleaning units in primary schools, which is a pilot run by the Department of Health and Social Care, were shared with the department as a part of the cross-government development of our specification. All discussions were supplier agnostic. The manufacturers involved in the Bradford trial did not gain any additional advantage or consideration for inclusion in the department marketplace, which followed its own compliant procurement process as outlined above. The products used in the Bradford trial were not presented as an offer from suppliers during the procurement process, they are therefore not available on the marketplace.

All procurement activity was undertaken with full compliance with the Public Contract Regulations (2015). The procurement of the air cleaning devices was undertaken using the Crown Commercial Service Framework (RM6157) which can be accessed by central government departments, including the department and the wider public sector. We have selected a range of products which meet our specification criteria to provide education and childcare providers with high quality air cleaning units of a suitable specification.

The department will publish details of the contracts for air cleaning units which will include the technical specification criteria on contracts finder in line with the government’s transparency agenda.