The UK record still stands at 40.3°C, set at Coningsby in Lincolnshire on 19 July 2022. Nothing has beaten it since, though parts of the country came close in June 2026.
The record itself isn’t really the point. The point is that sites set up around a British summer of twenty-two degrees now have to get through a fortnight at thirty-two, and heat is the one hazard people still treat as an inconvenience rather than a risk.
It also doesn’t just affect the people on site. It affects the plant working alongside them.
Here is what to have in place before the forecast turns.
Is There a Maximum Working Temperature in the UK?
No. There isn’t one, and there probably never will be.
The HSE is blunt about it: there is “no law for maximum working temperature, or when it’s too hot to work”. The reasoning is practical. Some workplaces are hot because of the work itself, bakeries and foundries being the usual examples, so any blanket figure would be meaningless.
Minimums do exist. Indoors the temperature should normally be at least 16°C, falling to 13°C where the work is physically strenuous.
Where sites go wrong is reading “no maximum” as “no duty”. Those are two very different things.
Your Legal Duty When the Temperature Rises
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 you have to make a suitable assessment of the risks to your workers’ health and safety, then do what is reasonably practicable to reduce them. The HSE has confirmed that extreme weather, heatwaves included, sits inside that duty.
In June 2026 the regulator put it about as plainly as it gets. Heat is a hazard and should be treated like any other hazard. Everyone is at risk, indoors or out. Employers are expected to act during a heat-health alert rather than sit it out. The HSE has also said it is reviewing the guidance and approved code of practice behind the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
So heat belongs in the risk assessment, alongside working at height and lifting operations. Not in a toolbox talk on the morning it hits thirty.
What a Hot Weather Risk Assessment Should Cover
- Shade and rest areas, with scheduled breaks for people to cool down
- Free drinking water across the site, not only at the welfare unit
- Flexible hours so the heaviest work happens in the cooler part of the day
- Relaxed dress codes and weather-appropriate PPE, with PPE off when resting in shade
- Training so everyone can recognise heat stress and knows what to do about it
Those are the HSE’s own suggested measures, and they are the baseline you should be able to evidence if anyone asks. Heat-health alerts come from the UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office. The alert season runs from 1 June to 30 September, although heat outside those dates can still trigger one.
Looking After Your Workers in Hot Weather
Construction is hard physical work, usually in full sun, in PPE designed to stop things hitting you rather than to keep you cool. Hi-vis and a hard hat are not summer clothing.
Dehydration creeps up across a shift and the first thing it takes is concentration. That is a problem on any site and a serious one where a lift is in progress. A slinger who has stopped thinking clearly is a slinger you do not want on the hook.
Rotate people through shade rather than leaving it to them to decide when they need a break, because most of them won’t. Put water where the work is. Nobody is walking two hundred metres across a site for a drink in August.
Spotting Heat Stress on Site
Headache, dizziness, cramps, confusion, unusual tiredness. The difficulty is that on a Friday afternoon in August every one of those gets put down to a long week.
Cover it in a toolbox talk at the start of the season, then again when the first alert lands. And be clear that stopping is the expected response rather than a black mark. People will not stand themselves down if they think it will count against them later.
Looking After Cranes in Hot Weather
The crew are not the only thing heat gets to. The crane does too, and usually you find out mid-shift.
Hydraulics, Seals and Filters
Sustained heat reduces hydraulic effectiveness, and pump pressure starts to drop once the oil gets too hot. Seals and hoses are more prone to seepage leaks in high temperatures, so they want a proper look during pre-use checks rather than a glance on the way past.
Long dry spells make sites dusty, and dust clogs filters faster than usual. Tighten the cleaning and lubrication schedule instead of running it to the same interval you would use in March. Check fluid levels and engine coolant before the shift, not once something is already running hot.
The Operator in the Cab
A cab in direct sun is a good deal hotter than the site around it. An operator sitting in that cab can get dehydrated and, at worst, suffer heat exhaustion while holding a suspended load.
Working air conditioning is not a comfort item on a day like that. It is part of the safety case for the lift. Operators need the same hydration and break discipline as everyone else, and realistically a bit more.
Ground Conditions After a Dry Spell
Ground behaves differently under outrigger loads after weeks without rain. A set-up position that was fine in April will not necessarily be fine in August, and the mats that worked then may not be the right answer now.
If conditions have changed since the ground was last assessed, assess it again before the crane sets up. “It was fine last time” is not a ground assessment.
Thorough Examination and LOLER in Summer
Under LOLER 1998, cranes need a thorough examination at least every twelve months. Lifting accessories, and anything used to lift people, need one every six. A written scheme drawn up by a competent person can replace either interval.
The bit worth remembering in a hot summer is that a thorough examination is also required after exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise safety. Damage, failure, a long spell out of use, major modification, a change of site. Heat damage to seals, hoses or hydraulics sits squarely in that list, and it does not wait for your annual date to come round.
Planning Summer Lifts Around the Heat
The standard advice is to start early and get the heavy work done before the worst of the day. It is good advice. It also runs straight into your permitted working hours.
In Barking and Dagenham, noisy construction work is allowed from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, and not at all on Sundays or bank holidays. Most London boroughs sit somewhere close to that. So starting at six usually is not available to you, and the realistic version is reordering the day instead: lifts first thing, lighter work through the afternoon, and a genuine willingness to stand down when an alert says to.
Build that flexibility into the programme early. Trying to find it on the day, with a crane booked and a delivery already on the road, rarely works.
If the lift is complex, or the site has changed since it was quoted, a contract lift takes the planning off you altogether. The lifting company supplies the appointed person, writes the lift plan and supervises the job.
Talk to Us About Summer Lifting Work
We have been running mobile cranes across London, Essex and the South East for over 35 years, which is long enough to have worked through a few summers like the last one. The fleet is maintained to schedule and our operators know how the machines behave when it is thirty degrees on the deck.
If you have lifting work coming up this summer and would rather plan it properly than improvise, give us a call or get in touch.