Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools are adequately ventilated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the department worked closely with partners, including the UK Health Security Agency, to ensure our policy on ventilation was in line with the latest public health and scientific advice.

In the 2021/22 academic year, the department provided over 386,000 CO₂ monitors to state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers backed by £25 million in government funding. The monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working. This helps to balance the need for good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm. Research indicates that the monitors are helping schools to manage ventilation and, in most cases, existing ventilation measures were found to be sufficient.

The department has provided air cleaning units to eligible schools. All eligible applications received have now been fulfilled, with over 8,000 air cleaning units delivered. The delivery figures can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units. Schools can also purchase air cleaning units at a suitable specification and competitive price directly from suppliers at an online marketplace set up by the department. Further information can be found here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning.

In 2018, the department published Building Bulletin 101 (BB101), which provides guidance for school design on ventilation, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. This guidance sets out the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines and Air Quality Standards Regulation 2010 for indoor air quality.