Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2022 to Question 22411 on Coronavirus: Schools, whether she has provided guidance to schools on the findings of the Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study; if she will place a copy of the findings of that study in the Library; and if she will make a statement.

The Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study, which has been renamed the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial, is a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.

This trial was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Officials from the Department for Education sat on the working group of the trial. The trial has concluded and the academic leads intend to make the results available by publishing in a peer reviewed journal in due course. As the results have not yet been published, no guidance has been provided.

The Department recognises that good ventilation can reduce the spread of respiratory infections and has provided CO₂ monitors to all eligible state funded settings in England. These monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working. This helps balance the need for good ventilation and keeping classrooms warm. The Department has also provided over 9,000 air cleaning units (ACUs) to over 1,300 settings that had sustained high CO₂ readings of above 1500ppm. These ACUs work through high efficiency particulate air filter technology.