Fourth health and climate adaptation report: call for evidence, summer 2024

Introduction

The last 3 decades across England have been progressively hotter. 2023 was the second warmest year on record – after a record-breaking 2022. All areas in England have experienced warmer summers and milder winters, consistent with global trends. These rapidly rising global temperatures, currently 1.09°C above pre-industrial levels, will continue to negatively affect population health in England.

Climate change threatens the health of the population and the ability of the NHS to deliver services in both the near-term and longer term. More frequent and severe floods and heatwaves, and worsening air pollution are among the impacts we are already experiencing in our changing climate, with estimated total excess mortality of 2,803 in England during the record-breaking temperatures of summer 2022.

Preparing and adapting to the changing climate is critical to minimise and manage its impact on our ability to deliver functions which support health and wellbeing. Adaptation in relation to health are actions or processes that reduce mortality and morbidity associated with climate change and strengthen the sector’s capacity to provide a high standard of care despite the changing climate.

Adaptation actions are often interlinked. For example, long-term adaptation planning often relies on accessible surveillance and climate projection tools, whereas the successful implementation of adaptation actions requires a workforce trained to respond to new challenges. Adaptation actions can also address current health priorities whilst taking health inequalities.

Climate change is already here. There is a clear and immediate need for the health sector to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change that can’t be avoided, building resilience into the system as it protects and promotes the health of populations now and in the future.

Background to this call for evidence

UKHSA and NHS England have been commissioned by Defra to jointly provide Government with a Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. This report, an update to the previous third health adaptation report published in 2021, will summarise the latest available evidence relating to climate impacts to the health service and population health, and outline actions being taken by various actors to build resilience to these risks. The findings will inform the forthcoming fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment.

The Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report will:

• provide any new information on or updates to risks and actions from previous reporting round
• assess progress towards completing previous actions, and detail how progress is being measured
• identify any new actions required to tackle climate risk in the health sector
• include any case studies which demonstrate climate impacts and/or good adaptation practices

We encourage input from stakeholders across the health sector including those working in NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Boards, primary care, Health and Wellbeing Boards, and the Public Health system, on this call for evidence.

Submissions of evidence from all interested parties are invited as part of adaptation reporting in the health sector. Note that any positions expressed do not necessarily represent current or future policy.

The deadline for responses to the call for evidence is 27 September 2024.

Next steps

The evidence gathered through this exercise will inform the Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. This is one part of the consultation process; the findings from this call for evidence will be considered alongside further engagement with stakeholders.

Consultation questions

Assessment of current risks

We would like to invite you to share your views on the risks which were identified for the health sector in the most recent Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (2022).

The table below details the 5 risks to health, communities and the built environment identified in CCRA3 deemed relevant to and in scope of the ARP4 health and climate adaptation report. This section asks for your assessment of these 5 risks.

Table 1: the 5 risks in the scope of the climate adaptation report

Risk or scenario	2050s, 2°C to 4°C	2080s, 2°C	2080s, 4°C
H1: Risks to health and wellbeing from high temperatures	Very high (negative)	Very high (negative)	Very high (negative)
H3a: Risks to people, communities and buildings from flooding	Very high (negative)	Very high (negative)	Very high (negative)
H7: Risks to health and wellbeing from changes in air quality	Low (negative)	Low (negative)	Low (negative)
H8: Risks to health from vector-bourne disease	Low to medium (negative)	Medium (negative)	Medium (negative)
H12: Risks to health and social care delivery [note 1]	Medium (negative)	High (negative)	High (negative)

Understanding the table

The economic magnitude of each risk has been assessed for both a 2°C and 4°C warming scenario. The following are the UK-wide magnitude categories where the cost of damage (economic) or forgone opportunities are represented in ranges to reflect the uncertainty in the evidence base.

(Negative) means that the projected impact will be a cost, rather than a benefit. For the scale of the impact:

• very high means over £1 billion per annum.
• high means over £ hundreds of millions per annum
• medium means over £ tens of millions per annum
• low means less than £ ten million per annum

Note 1: Assessment of H12 taken from the CCRA3 technical report. The Government’s CCRA3 assesses impact of H12 in all scenarios as ‘not known’.

Survey questions

Potential new risks

Enablers and barriers

Further information

Privacy notice

About UKHSA

On 1 October 2021, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) came into being. An executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), UKHSA combines many of the health protection activities previously undertaken by Public Health England (PHE), together with all of the activities of the NHS Test and Trace Programme and the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC).

The processing activities previously undertaken by these organisations and their associated data processors have not changed with the establishment of UKHSA. Individual rights are not affected by this change.

We are responsible for planning, preventing and responding to external health threats, and providing intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as internationally. UKHSA will ensure the nation can respond quickly and at greater scale to deal with pandemics and future threats.

We collect and use personal information to fulfil our remit from the government. UKHSA’s responsibilities include saving lives and reducing harm through effective health security responses, such as improving action on public health through data and insight.

The health sector has a responsibility to assess and act on its resilience and adaptation needs and has a strong track record in doing so. UKHSA and NHS England have been commissioned to jointly provide government with a fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report.

The report’s ambition is to help local, regional and national teams understand, plan and respond to climate change, while delivering on net zero commitments. UKHSA is seeking views of individuals, teams, Boards and organisations through a call for evidence, to inform the fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report.

This privacy notice explains what personal information we collect, use and may share for the fourth health and climate adaptation report. It explains what your rights are if we hold your personal information, and how you can find out more or raise a concern. DHSC is the data controller for the personal information we collect, store and use to fulfil our remit.

The information we collect

The type of data we will collect will be views, opinions, and relevant supporting information regarding experiences from professional stakeholders working in the health sector, in their professional capacity.”

We will also collect:

• your email address (if completing a paper survey and submitting it by email, or if responding on behalf of a team, Board or organisation and confirming that UKHSA can contact you about your response)
• any other data you volunteer by way of evidence or example in your response to open-ended questions in the survey

How we will collect your information

All information is volunteered directly from yourself as the survey participant.

The purposes we use your information for

This information is used to understand the views of health sector stakeholders in England regarding climate adaptation, including self-reported examples of good practice in climate adaptation. The information collected through this call for evidence will be used:

• for statistical purposes; for example, to understand how representative the results are and whether views and experiences vary across locations or types of organisations
• so that UKHSA can contact you for further information about your response (if you are responding on behalf of a team, Board or organisation and have given your consent)

The results of this work are to help the government review and assess progress on climate adaptation across the health sector, which will contribute to the fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. The previous report is published here.

How we protect your information

The personal information used by this call for evidence is protected in a number of ways. It is stored on computer systems that have been tested to make sure they are secure and which are kept up-to-date to protect them from viruses and hacking. Where we share your personal information with other organisations, we only ever do so using secure computer systems or encrypted email.

Your information used by us can only be seen by staff who have been specifically trained to protect your privacy. Strong controls are in place to make sure all these staff can only see the minimum amount of personal information they need to do their job.

Whenever possible, we only use your information in a form that does not directly identify you. For example, we would not publish the name of your organisation or location, and instead will talk in generalities (such as “several NHS Trusts reported” or “a Health and Wellbeing Board noted”). We do this to help protect your confidentiality.

No information that could identify individual people is ever published by UKHSA.

Where we store your information

All personal information used by this call for evidence is held in the UK only.

Who we share your information with

We may share your personal information with other organisations to support the development of the fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. If we do share your personal information, we only do so where the law allows and we only share the minimum necessary amount of information.

With NHS England

UKHSA alongside NHS England have been co-commissioned by Defra to publish the fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. As such, we have a joint responsibility to consider your information provided through this call for evidence. You can find privacy information about the data NHS England collects and uses on its website.

How long we keep your information

UKHSA will only retain your personal data for as long as either:

• it is needed for the purposes of drafting the call for evidence report
• to have follow-up conversations on the views you provided

Personal data you have provided will be held by UKHSA for no longer than one year.

Your rights over your information

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights over your personal information. You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of any information we hold about you
• ask for any information we hold about you that you think is inaccurate to be changed
• ask us to restrict our use of your information, for example, where you think the information we are using is inaccurate
• object to us using any information we hold about you, although this is not an absolute right and we may need to continue to use your information – we will tell you why if this is the case
• delete any information we hold about you, although this is not an absolute right and we may need to continue to use your information – we will tell you why if this is the case
• ask us not to use your information to make automated decisions about you without the involvement of one of our staff

You can exercise any of these rights by contacting UKHSA at:

You can also email InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk

You will be asked to provide proof of your identity so that we can be sure we only provide you with your information.

Our legal basis to use your information

The law on protecting personal information, known as the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), allows UKHSA to use the personal information collected by the fourth health and climate adaptation report.

The sections of the UK GDPR and the DPA that apply where we use personal information for the fourth health and climate adaptation report are:

• UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest’
• UK GDPR Article 9(2)(i) ‘processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health’
• Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1 Part 1 (3) ‘public health’

How to find out more or raise a concern

If you would like to find out more about this call for evidence, you can contact us at cfe.arp4@ukhsa.gov.uk

If you have any concerns about how personal information is used and protected by UKHSA, you can contact the Department of Health and Social Care’s Data Protection Officer at data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk or by writing to:

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office if you have any concerns about how Public Health England uses and protects any personal information it holds about you. You can do so by calling the ICO’s helpline on 0303 123 1113, visiting the ICO’s website at ico.org.uk or by writing to:

About this privacy information

The personal information we collect and use may change so we may need to revise this notice. If we do, the publication date provided below will change.

Published 14 August 2024

For more information, please also see UKHSA privacy notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)