Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's Press Release of 24 January 2022 entitled More support for schools and students as plan B comes to an end, what (a) amount and (b) form of support his Department is providing to support further ventilation in England's schools; by what criteria that support will be distributed; how schools can apply for such support; and by what date he estimates that support will have been implemented or disbursed.

During the autumn term, the department provided CO2 monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding. We have now delivered on our public commitment, with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the autumn term.

Based on the feedback we had from providers following the CO2 monitor programme, for the very few cases where maintaining good ventilation is not possible, on 2 January we announced that we are supplying up to a total of 8,000 air cleaning units to providers. Providers applied for units via an online form. Please note that applications closed at 9am on 17 January. On 24 January, the department committed to fulfil all eligible applications from education settings for air cleaning units and will make up to an additional 1,000 units available to do so. Air cleaning units were allocated to providers based on need, using the eligibility criteria we have set out in our guidance here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12cU_I5q0v1_my97yPMpb87RsSL5d5lpj.

As of 24 January, 1,265 providers that applied for department-funded air cleaning units were eligible. We are currently finalising the total number of units allocated to providers. This will depend on the needs identified by eligible providers, including the number of people using the room(s). Special schools and alternative provision have already received the air cleaning units they applied for in the autumn term. All other providers with eligible applications have now started to receive deliveries.

The total number of eligible providers mirrors published summary findings from the department’s survey of the use of CO2 monitors, which show that only 3% of providers using CO2 monitors reported sustained high CO2 readings that couldn’t otherwise be addressed. This survey is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co2-monitor-survey-and-applications-for-air-cleaning-units. Natural ventilation is best where that is achievable, and this evidence supports that, in the vast majority of cases, teaching spaces and classrooms benefit from sufficient natural ventilation.

Providers can also purchase air cleaning units at a suitable specification and competitive price directly from suppliers at the online marketplace. The marketplace is available at: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, we have emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance to schools, colleges and universities on ventilation requirements. In addition to our existing guidance on ventilation, we have provided education providers with guidance on how to use the air cleaning units, as well as how to order a unit via the online marketplace.

The department will keep the provision of air cleaning units under review as part of our overall response to COVID-19 and will continue to work with the sector to understand ventilation needs across the education estate.