Update from UKHSA

To support stakeholders with their hot weather communications this year, we have updated our communications toolkit for 2026. The material in this toolkit is intended to provide basic health information that can be communicated during hot spells so that the right messages reach the right people at the right time. This year we have included some new messaging on staying safe from direct sun.

The toolkit supports UKHSA’s Adverse Weather and Health Plan (AWHP) and Weather-Health Alerting (WHA) system, which issues Heat-Health Alerts (HHA).

The core alerting season for HHAs starts on Monday 1 June. Individuals and organisations that wish to receive the impact based HHA must register to receive the alerts where users will be able to specify which regions they wish to receive alerts for. The alert status is also publicly available on the UKHSA Data Dashboard.

If you are unable to access the toolkit via the link provided, please email us and we can send across a hard copy. Please do not publish the toolkit anywhere online to prevent old, outdated versions of the toolkit circulating.

A reminder that although anyone can become unwell when the weather is hot, people who are at higher risk of becoming seriously unwell include:

• older people aged 65 years and over
• babies and young children aged 5 years and under
• people with underlying health conditions particularly heart problems, breathing problems, dementia, diabetes, kidney disease, Parkinson’s disease, or mobility problems
• pregnant women
• people on certain medications
• people with serious mental health problems
• people who are already ill and dehydrated (for example from diarrhoea and vomiting)
• people who experience alcohol or drug dependence
• people who are physically active and spend a lot of time outside such as runners, cyclists and walkers
• people who work in jobs that require manual labour or extensive time outside
• people experiencing homelessness, including rough sleepers and those who are unable to make adaptations to their living accommodation such as sofa surfers or living in hostels
• people who live alone and may be unable to care for themselves

If you have any questions about the UKHSA hot weather communications, don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at externalaffairs@ukhsa.gov.uk.