Posted By J Knight Guidance to the workplace regs suggests a minimum of 16 degrees; yes, that's right, suggests. What is needed is an assessment of temperature needed based on the nature of the work being carried out; sedentary office workers are likely to need a higher temperature than busy plasterers, for example. You should also take any particularly vulnerable individuals into account. You don't need a thermometer as the actual temperature isn't really relevant; what;s important is that people should feel conmfortable, though having a thermometer might help to win an argument and they only cost a couple of quid, having said that I don't think I've ever worked anywhere with thermometers except for the ones we use to record bath temps. There are no limits on outdoor workplaces beyond the common-law requirement not to allow your employees to die of hypothermia ;-) John

Posted By Jonathan Breeze Just to clarify what John & Lewes have said, the figure of 16 degC is in para 43 of the ACoP appended to the Workplace Regs rather than in the regs themselves. While this figure is not an absolute, it is still approved guidance and you'd need to have a very good case for letting it drop below this.

Posted By MancMan Thanks for all that - But what about the providing thermometers around the workplace ???

Posted By J Knight Well Lewes, as Jon points out it's the ACOP, so it has more weight than I had indicated and forgive my egginess, I'm trying to avoid doing organograms at the moment. All I mean, in case my point is a tad obscure, is that 16 may be the minimum in the ACOP, but if people are too cold at 16 it's not going to do much good citing the ACOP as the intention really is about comfort, and we might well have to do more than the minimum to comply. Of course with the Offices Shops n Railway premises regime it was 18 and stop whingeing, nowadays whingeing is allowed, John

Posted By Debbie S On the local news last week (in the Suffolk area I believe) a small pet food shop (operating from a very old building with no heating whatsoever)was fined £1,000 by the HSE as the shop owner failed to get the minimum suggested temperature of 16 degrees C in his shop.

Posted By ITK Pet shops are enforced by LA not HSE and yes one was prosecuted recently for workplace temperatures. Thermometers are a legal requirment of th Wokplace (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Regulation 7(3)

Posted By Brian Hagyard No one spotted my deliberate mistake or are you just too nice to mention it? Of course I meant regulation 7(3) not 3(3) which is of course application to aircraft, locomotives or Rollins stock must be the cold/heat getting to me. Brian

Posted By Brian Hagyard Jonathan. Thank you for your indulgence. Remembered to spell check my posting forgot to read it as well! Brian.