Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's portal to purchase air filtration units for education and childcare settings, if he will define the suitable standard of specification for their use in education settings.

All air cleaning units provided by the department have met an approved technical specification, including units available to purchase via the marketplace. The department’s technical specification used to assess the units was developed through a rigorous consultation with industry wide experts in both air cleaning and ventilation from academia, professional bodies, and industry, including chartered engineers, scientists and several government departments. Through this consultation we have developed a specification specific to education.

The specification included a wide range of factors appropriate to an education environment to determine overall suitability. This included clean air delivery rates, noise levels, filtration capability, technical certification, ease of use and maintenance, warranty, and strength of evidence for manufacturer claims. The primary considerations were around the standard of filtration which is high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration technology; the minimum standard was specified to HEPA H13/ISO35H, which is a medical grade of filter which helps to remove airborne contaminants, including viruses such as SARS‑CoV‑2. HEPA technology is a mature technology and removes the risk of any less well tested technology being implemented into classrooms. Acoustic performance was also a major consideration due to the units needing to go into a classroom environment. All these criteria formed part of our technical specification used to assess and select units that meet our high specification and are suitable for teaching environments.

Any procurement that we undertake must comply with the Public Contract Regulations (2015). The procurement of air cleaning devices was undertaken using the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Framework (RM6157) which can be accessed by central government departments including the Department for Education and the wider public sector. We have selected a range of products which meet our high specification criteria to provide education and childcare settings with high quality air cleaning units.

The department has published details of the contract for air cleaning units provided to SEND and alternative provision settings, including the technical specification for these units, which can be found here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/d2955fc4-b281-45dd-9203-5c37df79dfda. The department will publish details of further contracts for air cleaning units, which will include the technical specification criteria, on contracts finder in line with the government’s transparency agenda.