As a record-breaking heatwave hits parts of the UK this week, Toby Perkins MP, Labour MP for Chesterfield, and the Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, has pushed the government on what it is doing to tackle the “silent killer” of extreme heat.
Britain had its hottest June day on Thursday, and temperatures in Chesterfield today (Friday) are predicted to reach 35 degrees. The extreme heat brings potential for widespread disruption, including to trains, and adverse effects on health, especially for the elderly, sick, and very young. But the ‘red alert’ issued by the Met Office for many parts of England over the last few days warns of the harmful effects of the extreme heat even on those not considered vulnerable.
In a letter published today, Toby Perkins MP asks the government how it plans to tackle overheating in hospitals, care homes, schools and prisons, as well as its views on measures such as establishing maximum workplace temperatures, prescribing active cooling such as air conditioning, and changing school timetables.
Toby is the Chair of the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee, a select committee tasked with scrutinising the government’s performance against environmental targets. The letter today follows an evidence session that the Committee held earlier in June on extreme heat. From expert witnesses from the Met Office, the UK Health Security Agency, and the Chair of the National Heat Risk Commission, as well as the Government’s own Climate Change Committee’s Adaptation Committee, the Committee heard that there are health risks, including early death, to extreme heat. Extreme heat also puts at risk critical infrastructure such as our energy system and transport system. They heard from the Climate Change Committee that cooling should be put into schools and hospitals as a matter of priority
The Committee also heard that current rates of global warming are unprecedented and that heat extremes are often outpacing scientific predictions, leaving the UK likely to face longer and more intense heatwaves. One witness told MPs that the UK was “built for a climate that no longer exists”.
Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield and Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said:
“This week parts of the UK are facing temperatures approaching 40 degrees, a level of extreme heat that was once unthinkable yet now is becoming increasingly likely.
The effects of such extreme heat can be disruptive and devastating. Without action, we will see economic productivity take a hit; more people needing attention in hospital and suffering with poor mental health; more hospitals, care homes and schools overheating and more of our critical transport, water, food and IT systems failing. Economic productivity will be hit, but more importantly we will likely see a significant number of deaths as a direct result of the current heatwave.
The evidence could not be clearer that extreme heat is an urgent threat to the UK. Yet the government is currently falling “far short of what is needed”, according to its independent climate advisors.
Taking action carries a significant cost. But the cost of doing nothing is far, far greater. I want to know what action the government is taking to tackle extreme overheating, a problem that will only grow worse without intervention, as well as its views on important measures to adapt to what seems to be our new normal.”
The full letter is published online here- https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/53783/documents/299984/default/.
Toby was on BBC Breakfast this morning (Friday 26 June) discussing his letter to the Government, you can watch it online here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56wGWMpnbtc.