‘National scandal’: extreme heat linked to 40,000 deaths in England between 1988 and 2025
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- Office for National Statistics data published Wednesday shows more than 40,000 excess deaths on England's hottest days between 1988 and 2025, with statistician James Tucker noting the gap between heat- and cold-related deaths has narrowed as heat deaths rise
- UK Health Security Agency estimated 2,877 deaths in the May-June heatwaves alone — almost double the figure for the whole summer in 2025 — and the ONS figures do not yet include this summer
- England's A&E departments recorded their busiest period ever with nearly 2.5 million patients per month in May, June and July, while nurses reported collapsing during shifts amid 'inhumane and impossible' conditions caused by extreme heat
- London had the highest number of heat-attributable deaths; the London ambulance service handled 25,000 more calls this summer than last, surpassing the peak of the Covid pandemic
- The Committee on Climate Change recommended in May that air conditioning be installed in all hospitals and care homes within 10 years and all schools within 25 years, and that the government set a legal maximum temperature for workplaces
- Continental Europe saw at least 35,000 excess deaths during the summer, and the WHO said heat-related mortality in its European region has risen more than 30% over the past 20 years
- Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute called the preventable deaths a 'shocking national scandal,' while Dr Clair Barnes of Imperial College London warned that heat deaths could overtake cold deaths as a fast-growing problem
Why it matters: With 2,877 heat deaths already recorded in May-June — nearly double the prior summer's full total — and London's ambulance service exceeding its Covid-peak call volume, England's lack of heat-resilient infrastructure is translating directly into preventable fatalities on a scale experts now call a national scandal rather than a future risk.
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