Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the (a) effectiveness and (b) efficiency of the roll out of air purification equipment in English schools in winter 2021.

The Department has not made an assessment on the effectiveness and efficiency on the rollout of air purification devices.

The Department has delivered over 386,000 CO₂ monitors to state-funded education settings, including early years, schools, and further education providers, to help manage ventilation needs against thermal comfort.

Where areas of poor ventilation were identified that could not be quickly fixed, the Department provided over 8,000 air cleaning units with HEPA filters as a temporary measure while any identified, underlying ventilation issues were addressed.

More information can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units.

On 11 March 2022, the Department invited 1,299 education providers which had received Department-funded air cleaning units to participate in a survey to evaluate how the units were being used.

More information about the evaluation and its findings can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1086631/FINAL_ACU_CO2_Evaluation_30_June_2022.pdf.

The Department will continue to work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on outcomes from trials to assess the impact of air purification devices.