The UK government has confirmed a full list of seven national crises that households are being urged to prepare for, as part of a new public awareness campaign. The Labour Party government is set to launch the initiative to help people cope with events such as weather emergencies or cyber-attacks.
Government Urges Small Steps for Preparedness
Households are being encouraged to take “small steps” to prepare for potential national crises. Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs that “the risks we face from climate change cannot be underestimated,” warning of “significant and prolonged disruption to essential services” that extreme weather events could cause. He also highlighted that the combination of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, the conflict in the Middle East, and Russia’s war in Ukraine could enable criminals to carry out “hostile cyber-attacks against businesses and critical infrastructure.”
Updated National Risk Register
The UK’s national risk register has been updated with seven new crises, while one risk has been removed. The new list includes:
- Digital resilience failure – reflecting lessons from incidents such as the Crowdstrike IT outage in July 2024.
- Two risks on data infrastructure: one focused on a cyber attack and the other on disruption.
- Cyber attack on water infrastructure – reflecting lessons from reported cyber attacks targeting the water sector.
- Cyber attack on police systems – reflecting the heightened risk of cyber attacks across all systems and efforts by government and police to strengthen resilience.
- Significant disruption to the operation of the Criminal Justice System – exploring disruption following lessons from previous overcrowding incidents.
- Accidental damage on the National Gas Transmission Network – exploring damage from agricultural digging.
- Interference in the UK democratic process.
The threat of disruption to Russian gas supplies has been removed from the list, “reflecting that the UK has reduced its reliance on Russian gas,” according to Jones.
Public Awareness Campaign
In a written statement, Jones announced a national public awareness campaign to help people prepare for emergencies, “be that severe weather or a cyber-attack which can impact access to power, water, phone signal or local shops to get food.” The armed forces minister, Louise Sandher-Jones, added: “Russia is not only a threat to Nato’s eastern flank. It is a direct threat to the UK homeland and these exercises, together with important measures like updating our ‘war books’, will help prepare us to meet that threat, as well as showing the British public how seriously we are taking it.”
Jones emphasized the UK’s history of overcoming challenges, stating: “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.”
