Health and Safety Working Temperature UK

Under the Health and Safety law, there is no legal minimum temperature your workplace needs to be. However, employers should provide reasonable working temperatures in workrooms, usually 16°C or 13°C for strenuous work.

Responsibilities for Indoor Workplaces

For employees working from an indoor workplace, all employers should provide measures to protect the employees from any hazards that may occur.

Employers should accommodate all working temperatures and where possible provide a comfortable working temperature. Where one cannot be maintained, using local heating and cooling devices such as fans, opening windows and using radiators. All employees and employers need to be aware of the risk of any dangerous or offensive fumes that can be emitted by these devices.

Responsibilities for Outdoor Workplaces

The responsibilities for working outdoors will depend if it is too hot or cold. When employees are too cold, using the correct equipment for them to stay warm is vital. Providing portable heaters and appropriate protective clothing where necessary will allow workers to stay warm while still working in cold environments.

Allow working design processes that minimise exposure to cold areas and cold products and try to reduce the draughts coming into the working area. To keep the workers safe and to avoid short and long-term illnesses use insulating floor coverings or special footwear when workers have to stand for long periods on cold floors.

For both working indoors and outdoors ensure all employees are taking adequate, regular  breaks and taking the rest they need by providing appropriate resting facilities where necessary. Allowing employees to have flexible working patterns or job rotations can also factor into this.

Very high or low workplace temperatures

If you are working in very high or low temperatures, you can be at risk of illness caused by these temperatures including, heat stress, dehydration or cold stress. Employers should review the situation and, if necessary, put in place controls to manage the risks:  

• Monitor how workplace temperatures are affecting workers as part of your risk management.
• Health surveillance or medical screening for all workers who are pregnant, have illnesses or disabilities, or are taking certain medication.
• Review working habits and current practices and (where necessary) change these to control the risks.

What hazards are associated with working in the cold?

To protect employees who may be working in cold conditions it is important that the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) is worn to reduce the risk of any hazards occurring. Make sure employees continue to wear PPE correctly despite workplace temperatures. For example, they should not endanger themselves by undoing fasteners to increase air movement into clothing.

The hazards that employees could be at risk of include:

• Cold stress
• Trench foot and frostbite
• Hypothermia
• Other risks including strains and sprains
• Long term effects (E.g. arthritis, ehematism breathing difficulties and heart disease.

How SOCOTEC can support with Health and Safety consultancy?

At SOCOTEC our experience ranges from providing individual consultants on short-term projects to support specific issues, through to multi-disciplinary teams on long-term assignments working within a major project or corporate organisation. The experience and knowledge of our team means that they can make an immediate and positive impact on projects and performance.

We focus on ensuring that the quality of support is to the same standard as all of our other consulting and training services. 

Using a consultant in your organisation means that you are guaranteed the same level of expert service and company support that you would expect but this is focused entirely on your project/organisation.

To find out more about our health and safety services, please contact us with your enquiry.