Stock up on battery radios and candles in case of major power cuts, public told
The public should stock up on devices powered by batteries (Photo: Getty/Mint Images RF)
The public have been told to stock up on battery-powered radios and candles in case a major emergency hits the National Grid or access to the internet.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said people should boost their own “personal resilience” at home to prepare for a potential major power outage.
Mr Dowden gave MPs the first annual update on the government’s national risk and resilience strategy.
While the national risk register is updated every few years, it is rarely viewed by the general public and ministers want people to be more aware of the potential threats to the UK and their own livelihoods.
More details of how people can prepare for different emergencies will be set out in guidance from the Cabinet Office next year, on a new “resilience website”.
Mr Dowden said people needed to be more “personally resilient” amid increasing reliance on digital phones and computers.
“The world has changed unrecognisably and our society is highly reliant on our digital infrastructure,” the Cabinet Office minister told The Times on a visit to the government’s high security laboratory Porton Down.
“Government needs to ensure that we are resilient in this digital age, ensuring that our structures take this into account, including considering those analogue capabilities that it makes sense to retain.
“What we’re also looking at is making sure that people are resilient to for example, if you had say for some reason, you had loss of power do you do people have still what we used to use?
“In the past you’d go down to a cupboard under the stairs, you’d have a torch or candles or whatever else.
“Another example of that is radios. What used to be the case that everyone would be able to access a battery-operated FM radio. How many people actually have that kind of communication device that isn’t reliant on digital and electric? So what would most of us do?”
According to the latest national risk register, published earlier this year, the biggest threats facing the UK besides another viral pandemic are power cuts caused by cyberattacks or assaults by hostile states on underwater power networks, as well as terrorism, AI-related threats and climate-related crises such as flooding.
Mr Dowden said “it could be tomorrow that one of these things hits”.
A new nationwide “volunteer hub” will be created where ordinary members of the public could offer to help out in a major crisis.
And a £10m UK Resilience Academy will train professionals working in appropriate jobs with specific emergency planning, crisis management and organisational resilience that can be deployed in the event of a disaster.