Government Urges Public to Prepare for Emergencies
The public will be encouraged to take "small but important steps" to prepare for potential food or water shortages resulting from cyber-attacks or severe weather events, the government announced while updating Parliament on its national resilience strategies.
Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones revealed that a public awareness campaign is scheduled for later this year to assist citizens in emergency preparedness.
Largest UK Home Defence Exercise Planned
Jones also stated that the government will conduct the "largest UK home defence exercise in several decades" next year, aiming to ensure the nation is ready in the event of a worst-case scenario.
National Risk Register Updated with New Threats
In a separate update, the national risk register has been revised to include seven new risks, notably the threat of a cyber-attack targeting water infrastructure.
The register now also lists "digital resilience failure" as a significant risk, referencing incidents such as the global CrowdStrike outage that affected over eight million computers worldwide. The total number of acute risks facing the UK now stands at 95.
One risk has been removed from the register: the threat of disruption to Russian gas supplies has been eliminated, reflecting the UK's reduced dependence on Russian gas.
The introduction to the risk register highlighted that the country's resilience has been "tested like never before" by recent global events, including oil supply disruptions, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a hantavirus outbreak, and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI).
Historical and Current Challenges
Jones commented on the UK's history of overcoming significant challenges:
"Throughout our history, the UK has overcome challenges from plagues and pandemics to war and our fair share of wet weather.
It is right that we consistently evaluate the risks we could face and plan for what may come.
This year we saw temperatures across the UK breaking records in May, only to be exceeded again in June, and AI offers new ways for criminals to carry out cyber-attacks against us, as well as offering huge opportunities for our economy and security.
The government will do all it can and we are well prepared – but we can all play our part to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe."
Details of the Public Awareness Campaign
The upcoming nationwide resilience campaign will inform the public about how to prepare for emergencies and disruptions, whether caused by severe weather or cyber-attacks that could affect access to power, water, phone signals, or local food supplies.
This campaign will expand upon information already available on the government's website.
Operation Albiston Shadow and Crisis Plan Updates
As part of emergency preparedness, ministers will conduct a multi-day exercise named Operation Albiston Shadow, designed to test the UK's capacity to respond to hybrid attacks.
Additionally, the country's classified crisis plans, known as 'war books,' are undergoing updates for the first time since 2004.
