LRD guides and handbook July 2015

Health and safety law 2015

Chapter 5

Temperature

[ch 5: page 73]

Employers must ensure the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings is “reasonable” during working hours. This means providing reasonable comfort without the need for special clothing.

The ACoP and guidance says that workrooms should normally be at least 16°C for most types of work, and at least 13°C for work involving considerable physical effort. For most kinds of work, the acceptable range of thermal comfort lies between 16°C and 24°C.

Although a maximum temperature is not specified, a workplace must be “adequately thermally insulated” and the “excessive effects of sunlight on temperature shall be avoided”. The World Health Organisation says that in temperate climates, the optimum indoor temperature is between 18°C and 24°C, and reps can use these figures to negotiate better standards than those laid down by law.

Other factors such as draughts and humidity must also be considered when aiming for a comfortable temperature. All reasonable steps should be taken to achieve a temperature which is as close as possible to comfortable, including insulating hot pipes and equipment, providing air cooling plants, shading windows, siting workstations away from hot areas and using air cooling plant.

Guidance in the ACoP and guidance says that suitable protective clothing and rest facilities should be provided where local heating or cooling fails to provide reasonable comfort. Where practical, there should be systems of work (such as task rotation) to ensure the amount of time individual workers are exposed to uncomfortable temperatures is limited.

Regulation 7 says that a sufficient number of thermometers must be provided to enable workers to check temperatures in indoor workplaces.

Campaign for legally enforceable maximum temperature

The HSE considered the need to introduce a maximum workplace temperature but, following extensive consultation and a review of research, concluded there is insufficient evidence for such a change either in the law or in the supporting ACoP.

The TUC and unions have long been campaigning for a legal maximum temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (27 degrees for those doing strenuous work) under the slogan Cool It!.

The TUC case for a maximum temperature is set out in its bulletin: Time for change — Heat — the case for a maximum temperature at work, July 2013, available at: www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Temperature.pdf.

HSE advice on temperature is available at: www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal.