Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to assist schools with monitoring internal temperatures.

Responsible bodies and school leaders have a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of both staff and pupils. Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, temperatures in workplaces must be reasonable, and leaders should regularly assess any conditions that may pose a risk and take appropriate action in response to high temperatures. In addition, these regulations require that a sufficient number of thermometers are provided to enable persons at work to determine the temperature in any workplace inside a building.

We have recently updated our design standards, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-standards-employers-requirements. These cover overheating risk assessments which account for rising temperatures associated with climate change, building performance evaluation that incorporate temperature monitoring, as well as external shading and cross ventilation. Our improve and renew guidance also outlines measures that could be implemented to mitigate overheating and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improve-and-renew-developing-your-long-term-estates-plan/improve-and-renew-your-long-term-estates-plan.