SOARING temperatures are expected to make a section of a glass-fronted Parliament building too hot for UK Government workers.
The Home Office helpdesk in Portcullis House (PCH), Westminster, will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, peers were told.
London is in the area covered by a Met Office red warning for extreme heat on those two days.
PCH was opened in February 2001 and provides offices for MPs and their staff. The main atrium is also used as a meeting spot.
Green Party peer Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle raised concerns as the House of Lords debated the Healthy Homes Bill, which sets out a series of principles including that all new homes must be designed to provide “year-round thermal comfort for inhabitants”.
Bennett said: “I want to bring us very close to home and point out to noble Lords that on Monday and Tuesday in Portcullis House the Home Office service office in Portcullis House will be closed because it is expected to be so hot that it won’t be safe for people to work there.
“If we want a metaphor for the unfitness of our current politics and of everything we have delivered for our society, there, in a nutshell — or in a glass-shelled office — is your metaphor.”
Immigration and passport delays are among the issues MPs and peers can raise with Home Office staff at the hub.
Concerns were later voiced about possible deaths next week due to the high temperatures.
Liberal Democrat Lord Redesdale, speaking during the second reading of the Climate and Ecology Bill, highlighted the impact the weather could have on demand for NHS services.
He said: “I hope that as many people will take the warnings as seriously as possible, because there could well be deaths due to the high temperatures.
“I don’t think anyone can dispute that this is a climate change-related event and that it will probably take place far more regularly in the future.
“It certainly highlights the need for this Bill — or the Government’s adoption of the targets within it — and shows that this is of growing importance.”
Redesdale’s Bill seeks to impose a duty on the UK Government to meet certain climate and nature targets, including reducing the UK’s overall contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
