'Legal & moral obligation' | Amid growing heatwave risks, should the UK have a maximum working temperature?

The UK should consider introducing a legal maximum temperature for workplaces to protect employees as heatwaves become more frequent and severe, climate advisers have said, warning that hotter conditions are already impacting productivity and workplace safety.

The call comes from the government’s independent climate adviser, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which has urged ministers to take stronger action to prepare the country for rising temperatures.  The committee believes clearer rules on workplace heat could encourage employers to invest in cooling measures and better protect workers.

The recommendation forms part of a broader warning from the CCC that the UK is failing to adapt quickly enough to the realities of climate change, with increasingly extreme heatwaves, floods and droughts posing growing risks to daily life.

Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s Adaptation Committee, criticised the pace of action by successive governments, describing efforts to tackle the impacts of climate change as “woeful”.