Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what changes his Department has made to (a) guidance and (b) regulations relating to specifications for new school buildings to improve ventilation in future classrooms.

Schools should always create a healthy indoor environment for occupants, this includes keeping spaces ventilated to reduce the concentration of pathogens in the air, such as SARS-CoV-2. Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance to schools, colleges and nurseries on ventilation requirements.

In 2018, the department published Building Bulletin 101 (BB101), guidance for school design on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality. This includes the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines and Air Quality Standards Regulation 2010 for indoor air quality.

Further, the department sets environmental standards for centrally delivered new schools and sets a minimum specification for ventilation to address healthy indoor air quality. The current version was updated recently and published in November 2021. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/output-specification-generic-design-brief-and-technical-annexes.