Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people in communities have adequate support to deal with periods of extreme heat.

The ’Heatwave Plan for England’ is a guide to prepare, alert and prevent the major avoidable effects on health during periods of severe heat in England. It advises the public, health and care providers, local authorities and public agencies on specific measures to protect the general public including vulnerable people and the elderly. The Plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heatwave-plan-for-england

A heat-health alert system operates from 1 June to 15 September. Depending on the level of alert, a response will be triggered to communicate advice and information on general preparation for hot weather and more specific advice when a severe heatwave has been forecast. An agreed lead body, usually the local resilience forum, will co-ordinate multi-agency collaboration, direct the response, work with the media to provide timely advice to the public, work with service providers in health care, education, voluntary organisations and housing providers and engage with local communities to provide additional help to care for those most at risk.