Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the evidence on which he based his decision to provide up to a further 7,000 air purifiers to schools without charge; and on what basis that overall number of units was reached.

On 24 January, the department published summary findings from its survey of the use of carbon dioxide monitors, and data on applications for air cleaning units. This is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co2-monitor-survey-and-applications-for-air-cleaning-units.

In total, 1,265 providers that applied for department-funded air cleaning units were eligible for air cleaning units. This mirrors the survey’s findings that only 3% of providers using carbon dioxide monitors reported sustained high carbon dioxide readings that could not otherwise be addressed.

The total number of air cleaning units that providers have applied for was just over 8,000. This demonstrates that, in the majority of classrooms and teaching spaces, solutions can already be found to keep ventilation at adequate levels. 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.