Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many ventilation units have been distributed to schools in the Bradford district as of 18 February 2022.

To fulfil all eligible applications, up to 9,000 air cleaning units will be provided to state-funded education providers for poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. As of 24 January 2022, 1,265 providers were eligible to receive air cleaning units. These were allocated to providers based on need, using the eligibility criteria we have set out in our guidance.

As of 11 February, 6,311 air cleaning units have been delivered to state-funded education providers, including 39 units that have been delivered to 6 schools in Bradford. Most eligible providers will receive their units by the end of February.

Natural ventilation is best where that is achievable, and we have robust evidence that, in the vast majority of cases, teaching spaces and classrooms benefit from sufficient natural ventilation. That evidence includes the responses to our recent survey of providers using the carbon dioxide monitors that we published on 24 January. This showed that only 3% of providers reported sustained high CO2 readings (above 1500ppm) that could not be remedied through quick fixes or remedial building works. The survey findings are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co2-monitor-survey-and-applications-for-air-cleaning-units.