Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what contingency planning he has carried out on dealing with periods of extreme heat.

The Cabinet Office has been overseeing the cross-government response to the current heatwave, running daily COBR meetings and ensuring appropriate situation reporting to inform contingency plans and decision making.

Individual departments are responsible for the preparedness and contingency plans of their sectors, including ensuring that plans are in place to handle the impacts of extreme heat.

The UK Government has activated a number of pre-agreed contingency plans to cope with the current heatwave, using the Met Office’s National Severe Weather Warning service and the UK Health Security Agency’s Heat Health Alerts as triggers for contingency plan implementation. For example, in response to the forecast, the rail network has introduced widespread speed restrictions and the NHS has taken steps outlined in the National Heatwave Plan.