Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Education Unions dated 21 July 2022, how many schools were provided with HEPA air filtration devices during the 2022 summer holidays in preparation for the Autumn term.

Over the last year, backed by £25 million in Government funding, the Department has provided 386,699 CO2 monitors to state-funded education settings including early years, schools and further education providers. CO2 monitors can support schools to identify poor areas of ventilation which will provide further reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, especially over the winter months. As well as helping to identify areas that are poorly ventilated, CO2 monitors can be useful to help settings balance good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm.

Where an area of poor ventilation has been identified that cannot be resolved through simple measures such as opening doors and windows. Where it is not possible to maintain adequate ventilation, it may be appropriate for settings to consider the use of an air cleaning unit while the underlying ventilation issue is addressed. In January, the Government committed to fulfil all eligible applications for air cleaning units to state-funded education settings for poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation were not possible. All eligible applications received have been fulfilled, with 8,026 air cleaning units distributed by 24 June 2022. All units delivered use High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA).

A marketplace remains open for all state-funded education settings as a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. All units available on the marketplace use HEPA filtration. It can be accessed on GOV.UK at the following link: Air cleaning units for education and childcare settings - Find a DfE approved framework for your school - GOV.UK (find-dfe-approved-framework.service.gov.uk).