Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria were used in the selection of the Dyson Pure Cool Formaldehyde – TP09 and Camfil City M as air cleaning units for education and childcare settings.

All air cleaning units provided by the department have met an approved technical specification. 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 focusing on key drivers including classroom size, acoustics, clean air delivery and filtration as well as requiring strong evidence to verify manufacturers' claims.

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 from the air 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 of 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 the 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 this high specification criteria to provide education and childcare settings with high quality air cleaning units of a suitable specification.

For education providers which are not eligible for funded units, the department has launched an online marketplace which provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning. In future, the department may review this list and as more products which meet our specification become available, these will be added.

The department will publish details of the contracts for air cleaning units which will include the technical specification criteria on contracts finder in line with the government’s transparency agenda.