The UK government has launched a three-year campaign urging households to prepare for emergencies that could disrupt everyday life, from severe weather and wildfires to cyberattacks and failures of essential services. The 'Be Ready' initiative advises people to keep basic supplies at home to manage for at least three days if access to food, water, electricity or digital payment systems is interrupted. The campaign was announced as Prime Minister Andy Burnham called for greater public preparedness at a wildfire and resilience summit in Liverpool on Friday. The government says the aim is to help people cope with unexpected disruptions, rather than create alarm.
What is the UK's 'Be Ready' campaign?
The 'Be Ready' initiative encourages households and businesses to think ahead and make basic preparations for emergencies. The guidance, published on Thursday, recommends keeping enough essential supplies at home to get through the first three days of a disruption.
The government says emergencies could range from storms and extreme weather to cyberattacks, hostile activity by state actors and terrorist threats that affect essential services or supply chains.
Explaining the need for the campaign, Burnham said: "We're having the conversation with people about being better prepared because we're living in a world where unexpected events seem to be becoming more and more common."
He added that the idea was to ensure people had essential supplies at home to get through difficult periods. "It is just having those supplies in the house to get you through those moments. So we are having that conversation about resilience."
The guidance follows similar preparedness advice in France, Ireland and the Netherlands.
What should households keep at home for emergencies?
The campaign recommends maintaining a supply of essential items that can be used if normal services are interrupted. These include:
- Drinking water and food: Bottled water and non-perishable food sufficient for three days.
- A battery-powered or wind-up radio: An FM radio can help households receive updates when electricity or internet services are unavailable.
- Cash: Banknotes and coins in case card payments, digital payment systems or cash machines stop working.
- Lighting and batteries: A torch and spare batteries for use during power cuts.
- Warm bedding: Sleeping bags and blankets to help people stay warm if heating is disrupted.
- Personal hygiene supplies: Toiletries and other basic necessities.
The recommendations are intended to help people manage temporarily without relying on shops, online services or other facilities that may be affected by an emergency.
Why is the UK government asking people to prepare for emergencies?
The campaign comes amid concerns about extreme weather, wildfires and the vulnerability of essential services to cyberattacks.
The UK has experienced droughts, extreme heat and wildfires during recent summers. Scientists have linked the increasing risk of extreme heat and fire conditions to human-driven climate change.
In August, a fire in Stourbridge, central England, destroyed 19 homes and damaged another 18. During a visit to the area, Burnham called for Britain to confront the effects of a changing climate and speed up its transition to clean energy.
Cyberattacks have also raised concerns about how quickly essential services can be disrupted. This month, major French supermarket chains were affected by a cyberattack that caused refrigeration temperatures to rise in hundreds of stores, forcing spoiled food to be discarded.
Separately, governments and companies around the world shut down websites this week after artificial intelligence uncovered critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used to run about 70% of the world's websites.
Such incidents have added to concerns about the potential impact of disruptions to food supplies, digital infrastructure and payment systems.
How will the UK strengthen its wildfire response?
Alongside the public preparedness campaign, Burnham announced measures to improve the country's ability to respond to wildfires.
UK military helicopters and aircraft will be equipped to help fight wildfires, while English firefighting services will receive additional specialist wildfire teams and lightweight personal protective equipment.
The government has earmarked up to £45 million (around $60 million) to tackle the growing threat from wildfires.
The measures are intended to strengthen emergency response capabilities as the country faces hotter and drier conditions in parts of the year.
UK government says people should be 'alert but not alarmed'
Defence Minister Wes Streeting told the BBC on Thursday that the campaign was designed to encourage practical preparation rather than fear.
The government wants "people to be alert but not alarmed", he said.
Streeting also urged households and businesses to consider how they would cope if essential supply chains were disrupted by hostile state actors or terrorists.
"How would we cope if the payment systems at the local supermarket went down?" he asked.
The question underlines one of the campaign's central messages: even if people have access to money, food and other resources under normal circumstances, a sudden outage could temporarily make them difficult to obtain.
The 'Be Ready' campaign will run for three years, encouraging households to take simple steps now so they are better equipped to deal with unexpected emergencies.
Inputs from agencies