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33°C On A Bank Holiday Monday, and Still No Legal Maximum Workplace Temperature

ended 29. May 2026

The UK basked through one of the hottest May bank holidays on record this week, with the Met Office recording 33°C in southern England and the Midlands on Monday, 25 May. Yet there is still no legal maximum workplace temperature in British law.  

ACAS issued a heatwave warning ahead of the weekend, urging employers to use fans, air conditioning and blinds, provide drinking water, offer flexibility around delayed public transport, and consider reasonable adjustments, portable cooling, and more frequent breaks for vulnerable workers. ITV News ran a "what are my rights?" explainer the next day that quietly confirmed the gap: the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require a "reasonable" temperature and set a minimum of 16°C (13°C for strenuous work), but no upper limit.

The TUC has long campaigned for a legal indoor maximum of 30°C, or 27°C for strenuous work, with action triggered above 24°C. The British Safety Council disagrees, arguing that a rigid number is the wrong instrument and that risk assessment and "reasonably practicable" controls are better suited to the variety of British workplaces.

The split matters because UK summers are no longer outliers. Forecasters expect 40°C peaks again. For a small employer running a warehouse, a commercial kitchen or an upstairs office above a shop, the cost of cooling, or the cost of sending people home, is real. For workers without air conditioning, working through a heatwave is an unpaid health risk.

We'd like your views:

  • Should Parliament finally set a legal maximum workplace temperature,  or would that just hand another compliance bill to small employers who already can't afford air conditioning?
  • If you run an SME without air conditioning, what did you actually do on Monday, 25 May? Send people home, flex the hours, push on through? 
  • Outdoor workers, builders, road crews, and delivery riders get no statutory hot-weather protection at all. Is that a national embarrassment, or a sensible recognition that the job is the job?
  • The minimum workplace temperature is 16°C. Why is it politically possible to set a floor but not a ceiling? 
  • ACAS guidance is good advice, but it isn't law. Does "guidance" cut it when people are collapsing on warehouse floors?

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Funny old country, isn't it. We'll happily tell you the legal minimum your office can be in February, but ask about August and suddenly the law goes for a lie down. 33°C in a Midlands warehouse on Monday wasn't "a bit warm". It was a slow cooker with a payroll.
I do get why a hard legal ceiling makes ministers twitchy. A bakery, a foundry and an upstairs office above the chippy don't share much beyond a postcode. Slap one number on all of them and the bill lands squarely on the small employer who couldn't afford air con in 2026 if you threw in the ductwork for free.
But the middle ground isn't hard to find. A statutory action trigger somewhere around 27 to 30°C, paid breaks, proper risk assessments and a real duty to act. Workers protected, corner cafés still open. ACAS guidance is well meant, but guidance won't cool a kitchen, and it isn't much comfort to the lad who fainted next to the fryer.
Set the ceiling. Fund the fans. Stop pretending British summers are still British.