Streeting: Prepare for supply chain disruption from cyber or climate emergencies

The government hopes to improve the UK’s preparedness for emergencies, such as those caused by increasingly likely severe weather events and cyber-attacks by hostile states.

Incidents could leave the public without access to everyday services such as mains water, sewage, phones and the internet.

The “Be Ready” campaign encourages households to stock up on supplies to survive for three days, including non-perishable food, bottled water, a torch, sleeping bags, and first aid items.

It also suggests having a FM radio for updates during outages, and writing down the frequencies of any national or local radio stations you use for news.

Asked by a Question Time audience member whether the campaign amounted to scaremongering, Streeting said the government want “people to be alert but not alarmed”.

He said that there was not a “specific thing we’ve got in mind” when putting out the advice.

But, he added that the supplies on the list “might help you through some power cuts, or might also help you through if… your local shop’s subject to a cyber-attack and your card isn’t working at the till”.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis MP said the advice will ensure emergency services can prioritise people who need more support during crises, and hopes it will “improve our resilience as a nation”.

It follows on from similar campaigns by European countries, like France, Ireland and the Netherlands, where the advice is a “normal part of everyday life”, he added.

Last month Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said people should prepare for extreme weather as the strongest El Niño event in a generation develops over the Pacific Ocean.

She said the powerful natural climate phenomenon will lead to “more extreme storms in this country”, and that households should stock up on food to be more resilient.

Her comments came as an National Audit Office (NAO) report warned Britain’s food supply chain is vulnerable to plant or human disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and extreme weather.

The NAO said the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) had not done enough in recent years to improve supply chain resilience, and that UK households are less prepared for emergencies than those in several other countries such as Finland and Sweden.

The government launched its national security strategy last year, which warned that the UK must “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”.

It said the nation was “in an era in which we face confrontation with those who are threatening security”, and referred to Russia’s war against Ukraine and “Iranian hostile activity on British soil”.

The government said building national resilience meant reducing reliance on others and ensuring UK supply chains and energy security could be maintained “even in times of crisis”.