Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of air purifiers in schools in Stockport.

During the autumn term, the department provided CO2 monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding. The department has now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the autumn term. This includes 1,534 CO2 monitors which were delivered to schools in Stockport.

Air cleaning units were allocated to settings based on need, using the eligibility criteria the department set out in guidance, which is available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12cU_I5q0v1_my97yPMpb87RsSL5d5lpj. As of 24 January 2022, 1,265 settings that applied for department-funded air cleaning units were eligible for air cleaning units, including 3 education providers in Stockport.

The department is currently finalising the total number of units allocated to education providers, this will depend on the needs identified by eligible education providers, including the number of people using the room(s).

The total number of eligible education providers mirrors published summary findings from the department’s survey of the use of CO2 monitors, which show that only 3% of settings using carbon dioxide monitors reported sustained high carbon dioxide readings that couldn’t otherwise be addressed. This is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co2-monitor-survey-and-applications-for-air-cleaning-units.

The total number of air cleaning units that education providers have applied for was just over 8,000. Up to an additional 1,000 units have now been ordered, bringing the total number of units available up to 9,000, allowing all eligible applications to be fulfilled.