Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on improving ventilation in classrooms in England.

The Department is not aware of any recent discussions between my right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on improving ventilation in classrooms.

The Department’s policy is to support schools to improve ventilation to help avoid viruses and respiratory infections. Maintaining adequate ventilation ultimately remains the responsibility of individual schools.

Since Autumn 2021, the Department has delivered over 600,000 CO2 monitors to state-funded settings, including early years, schools and further education providers. Final deliveries are due to be made by March 2023.

In addition, the Department has provided over 8,400 air cleaning units so far for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded schools, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.