The Office of Rail and Road does not have a role in monitoring, regulating or setting standards for vehicles or drivers. The Department for Transport has no current plans to begin collecting statistical data on cab temperatures in road vehicles.

Heat is classed as a hazard and should be treated by employers like any other hazard. There is a legal obligation under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 for all employers to make a suitable assessment of the risk to workers and act where necessary. Detailed guidance for employers and workers about temperature in the workplace is available from the Health and Safety Executive website. The guidance is not written for specific job roles, such as delivery drivers, but includes information on how to undertake a thermal comfort assessment and outlines measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort and reduce the risk of heat stress.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 16 July 2026 in response to Question 17199.

Responsible bodies and school leaders have a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of both staff and pupils, this includes ensuring that temperatures are reasonable and that spaces are sufficiently ventilated.

​​We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-estates-strategy.

This includes a new £710 million renewal and retrofit programme to improve condition and climate resilience. We will invest almost £3 billion per year by 2034-35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate; and invest  almost £20 billion through to 2034-35 in the School Rebuilding Programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.

​We have recently updated our design standards, covering heating, cooling and ventilation systems, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-standards-employers-requirements as well as overheating risk assessments and external shading. Our improve and renew guidance also addresses overheating mitigation, ventilation and heating systems 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.

Part O of the Building Regulations requires that new residential buildings are built to mitigate the risk of overheating. Mechanical cooling, including air conditioning, may be used to meet the Part O requirements where all reasonably practicable steps have been taken to minimise overheating through passive means. Part O, like other Building Regulations, is set in performance terms rather than mandating or prohibiting particular technologies or design solutions.

The Government recognises the value of good quality evidence to support the effective operation of the Building Regulations and has committed to a full technical review of Part O to ensure it is effective and proportionate. As part of this review, we will consider what information may be useful to better understand how industry is complying with the overheating requirements.

We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy.

The strategy includes a new £710 million Renewal and Retrofit Programme to improve condition and climate resilience, investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and improvement of schools and colleges. The department is also investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme through to 2034/35, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.

We have recently launched a new construction framework and updated design standards, setting our requirements for all new and refurbished school buildings delivered by the department. These standards promote integrated environmental design and cover overheating risk assessments, cross-ventilation, indoor air quality and the use of cooling through ground-source heat pumps.

The Building Safety Regulator's technical review of Part O of the Building Regulations is underway. The review is considering the guidance relevant to all aspects of the Part O requirement, including both: 1(a) limiting unwanted solar gains in summer; and 1(b) providing an adequate means to remove heat from buildings.

The review will also consider issues raised by stakeholders through the 2023 call for evidence - this includes concerns about how the relationship between passive and active cooling measures is considered in the guidance.

The department holds information on air-conditioning units identified through the Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme, which surveyed state-funded schools between 2021 and 2026.

The information collected reflects the position observed at the time of the survey visits. The CDC surveys are visual and non-intrusive, and air-conditioning units are recorded only where they are observed during a survey visit.

The department has published a climate change risk assessment for the education sector and is improving climate resilience across the education estate through programmes, including the £710 million renewal and retrofit programme and the school rebuilding programme, which will deliver climate-resilient buildings at more than 750 schools.

The department takes periods of hot weather and heatwaves seriously and has published a climate risk assessment which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-of-uk-climate-change-risk-on-the-delivery-of-education/summary-of-findings-in-relation-to-3-climate-risks-overheating-flooding-and-water-scarcity.

We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy. This includes a new £710 million renewal and retrofit programme to improve condition and climate resilience, investment of almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate and investment of almost £20 billion through to 2034/35 in the school rebuilding programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.

The department has recently updated the design standards, covering overheating risk assessments which account for rising temperatures associated with climate change, as well as external shading and cross ventilation. Our improve and renew guidance also outlines measures that could be implemented to mitigate overheating. This guidance 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.

My Department does not hold any such information.

The Government has not estimated the number of houses built which had air conditioning.

The Government recognises the vital role that bus drivers play in supporting local communities and understands the importance of driver welfare, not only for the health and wellbeing of drivers themselves, but also for the safety of passengers and other road users.

The majority of bus services in England outside London are operated on a commercial basis by private companies, and operators are expected to ensure their employees have access to healthy and safe working conditions.

In addition, the Public Service Vehicles (Conditions of Fitness, Equipment, Use and Certification) Regulations 1981 sets out the requirements for public service vehicles, including buses, in relation to the equipment on board and vehicle specification. These regulations make clear that ‘adequate ventilation shall be provided for passengers and the driver without the necessity for opening any main window or windscreen’. Bus operators are required to ensure their fleet complies with these regulations.

There are no permitted development rights for standalone air conditioning units. However, in certain circumstances, planning permission is not required where it would not materially affect the external appearance of the building. Part P of the Building Regulations (electrical safety) may also apply to installing a standalone air conditioning unit, where a system or the wiring required for it is fixed to a building, so Building Control approval may need to be sought.

There is a permitted development right for domestic air source heat pumps. The right was amended in 2025 to allow for the heat pumps to also be used for cooling to permit the installation of air-to-air heat pumps.

The permitted development right requires that heat pump installations are compliant with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme 020 a) Planning Standard, which provides a noise assessment methodology including an upper noise limit at neighbouring habitable room windows.

Part L (energy efficiency) and P (electrical safety) of the Building Regulations must be complied with when installing an air-to-air heat pump, and it is possible Building Control approval may be needed.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, MHCLG consulted on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). That consultation, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals relating to noise pollution. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.