To ask the Minister of Education, further to the Department for Education's recent launch of an online marketplace for schools to buy air purifiers to help address COVID-19 in schools in England, to outline what steps her Department has taken to introduce a similar scheme.

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters may be appropriate for installation in some areas where poor ventilation is identified and work continues to identify how these are best used and where they should be installed.

The Education Authority (EA) has placed an initial order for 100 Air Filtration Units, which will be deployed to areas where specific remedial action to improve ventilation is either not possible, or will have a lead time to address. These units will be supplied by the EA to affected schools, as an interim measure, until such times as remedial works are completed, wherever necessary.

It is important to note that air filtration units are not required in all classrooms, particularly those with existing good ventilation. My Department’s approach is therefore a controlled interim measure and does not represent a wider deployment of air filtration units to schools. This is similar to the approach being adopted in other jurisdictions.

My Department will continue to work closely with other jurisdictions, however it is important to emphasise that current guidance current guidance is that such units are not a substitute for good ventilation. My Department and the EA are therefore focussing on a range of mitigations to put in place in our schools, where ventilation issues have been identified.