Extreme heat in the UK - need for human-centred policies

The UK has already faced five heatwaves in 2026, with a potential sixth hitting this September.

The Physiological Society has released a new report recommending human-centred physiologically informed policies to prevent heat-related health impacts on workers and lost productivity.

The report, ‘Climate change-driven extreme heat, occupational health and productivity: A need for human-centred policy in the UK’ examines the impacts of climate change-driven extreme heat on workers, occupational health and productivity. It has been developed with input from a panel of experts from the UK and abroad, specialising in thermal and occupational physiology, climate change, workforce health and safety, public policy, and other related disciplines.

The report sets out a series of recommendations for government and policy makers to better protect people and productivity from the growing risk of extreme heat as the UK climate continues to warm:

Set targets for extreme heat that consider wider physiological risk factors.
Update regulations to ensure workers’ productivity and health are legally protected during periods of extreme heat.
Provide effective and physiologically informed guidance that enables all employers to protect workers from extreme heat risk while enabling them to maintain productivity.
Support further research that will address gaps in understanding of how heat impacts productivity, health and safety.
Coordinate public health messaging across the four nations to support a wider understanding of the benefits of improving physiological resilience to heat risk for worker productivity and health.

The UK’s Climate Change Committee has stated that “increasingly extreme and frequent heatwaves are the greatest risk to health in the UK from climate change”. These heat-related impacts in the health sector currently cost the UK £538 million annually and could increase by 245% by the 2050s.

As the health and safety of workers across the UK is increasingly impacted by extreme heat risk, so is their physical work capacity and productivity, leading to greater knock-on effects to the wider UK workforce and economy. The World Health Organization estimates that for every 1°C temperature rise above 20°C, productivity falls by 2%. In the UK, a 1°C increase in temperature potentially reduces the number of hours worked among the labour force by more than a 100 million hours.

The UK is adapting slower than the climate is warming.

Dr Josh Foster (King’s College London, UK), Chair of the Physiological Society’s Extreme Heat in the Workplace Steering Group, says:
“We can only develop effective interventions for all workers if we understand how heat and other factors affect an individual’s ability to remain safe, healthy and productive in hot environments. This report demonstrates how heat impacts the body and gives examples of solutions to mitigate those effects. It is my hope that the launch of this report acts as a springboard for continued engagement between physiology, policy, and industrial partnerships.”

In June 2026, 24 million working hours were lost on days above 30°C, which cost the UK economy more than £1.15 billion in lost output. This was driven largely by the impact heat has on individual workers. During the same period, 87% of healthcare workers surveyed by the Doctors’ Association UK felt physically unwell due to extreme heat, and 67% reported that their patient safety was affected. Health staff and firefighters have been pushed to the limit this summer providing vital services in response to the health and environmental impacts of the heatwaves.

Along with key workers, the heat can impact the broader working population across all industries. A combination of factors places different sectors and workers at risk, including physically demanding roles; wearing PPE; working outdoors or in settings with greater exposure to heat or humidity; and working in industries that require continuous or fixed operation times.

Heat exposure can lead to workers’ experiencing heat-related illness, including dizziness, nausea and headaches, as well as reduce their cognitive function and impair decision-making, which could mean they are unable to perform their duties, or lead to increased workplace accidents. Addressing the growing risk to worker wellbeing is not just a legal duty, it also ensures that a large part of the UK population can be better protected from the threat of extreme heat in environments where they spend a third of their time.

Writing in the report’s foreword, Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, Chair of the Adaptation Committee of the Climate Change Committee, notes:
“Simple, cost-effective solutions can protect workers from extreme heat, but only if they are empowered with both the information and agency to make their workplaces safer, supported by legislation, regulations and employer behaviour.”

“Physiologists, working alongside policymakers and other disciplines, will be crucial in ensuring that workers’ productivity and health are protected as part of a well-adapted UK.”

Heat is already acting as a physiological constraint on workforce function, but current UK policy frameworks still treat it primarily as an infrequent risk to the most vulnerable in society, rather than a system-wide occupational health risk.

The Parliamentary event and launch of the report aims for physiologists and physiological evidence to be included in the consultation and decision-making process to ensure the policy response is effectively implemented and human-centred.

The UK is adapting slower than the climate is warming. This leaves the country and its workforce dangerously underprepared for the immediate and worsening impacts of climate change, with temperatures and heatwaves expected to be more frequent, longer and more intense. Protecting worker productivity and health from these worsening impacts requires policy action that considers physiological and work demand perspectives and, in particular, those living at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities and risks.