Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of whether air filters reduce the rate of transmission of viruses in indoor environments.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) considered the paper, ‘Application of UV disinfection, visible light, local air filtration and fumigation technologies to microbial control’ at meeting 37 on 19 May. Among the key findings of that paper are that the use of local air cleaning devices, including filter devices and ultraviolet C devices are unlikely to have significant benefit unless the airflow rate through the device is sufficient. The paper is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emg-role-of-ventilation-in-controlling-sars-cov-2-transmission-30-september-2020