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Schools: Air Conditioning

Question for Department for Education

UIN 133180, tabled on 2 March 2022

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2022 to Question 107576 on Schools: Air Conditioning, how many filters has his Department provided per school in (a) Newcastle, (b) the North East and (c) London.

Answered on

8 March 2022

To fulfil all eligible applications for air cleaning units, up to 9,000 air cleaning units have been made available to state-funded education providers with poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible. As of 24 January 2022, 1,265 education providers were eligible to receive air cleaning units. This figure includes schools, colleges, and early years providers. Air cleaning units were allocated to education providers based on need, using the eligibility criteria the department has set out in its guidance.

As of 25 February 2022, 7,647 air cleaning units have been delivered to state-funded education providers. Of these:

  • 41 units have been delivered to 6 education providers in Newcastle (of which 5 are schools)
  • 376 units have been provided to 64 education providers in the north-east (of which 48 are schools)
  • 1,016 units have been provided to 142 education providers in London (of which 99 are schools)

Natural ventilation is best where that is achievable, and the department has robust evidence that, in the vast majority of cases, teaching spaces and classrooms benefit from sufficient natural ventilation. That evidence includes the responses to the department’s recent survey of education providers using the CO2 monitors that was published on 24 January 2022. This showed that only 3% of education providers reported sustained high CO2 readings (above 1500ppm) that could not be remedied through quick fixes or remedial building works. The survey is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co2-monitor-survey-and-applications-for-air-cleaning-units.