UK Government Urges Households to Prepare for Emergencies, Including War and Cyberattacks

The UK government is preparing to urge households to keep basic supplies such as food and drinking water at home as part of a wider national resilience campaign aimed at helping people cope with major emergencies.

The campaign is expected to advise people to keep items including bottled water and tinned food that could help them manage for several days if essential services are disrupted. Officials say the preparations are designed to cover a broad range of potential emergencies, including cyberattacks, extreme weather, infrastructure disruption and hostile-state activity.

The government’s approach is based on encouraging households to become more resilient so that emergency services and authorities can concentrate their resources on people who are most vulnerable during a major crisis.

Environment Secretary Angela Eagle previously urged Britons to keep enough food and water available to get through several days without power or water, describing this as part of becoming “a bit more resilient.”

The advice comes as the government expands its planning for scenarios that could disrupt everyday life. These include severe weather events, cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and potential consequences from international conflicts.

British authorities have also been reassessing contingency plans for how the country would respond if a military conflict involving a hostile state affected the UK.

The government’s wider preparedness planning follows warnings that cyberattacks could disrupt businesses and critical infrastructure, including systems responsible for essential services. The UK’s National Risk Register has also been updated to include additional scenarios involving cyber and infrastructure disruption.

Officials have stressed that the preparedness campaign is intended as practical guidance rather than a prediction that war or another specific catastrophe is imminent. The message is essentially for households to be able to cope temporarily if normal services are interrupted.

The UK is not alone in encouraging citizens to prepare for emergencies. Governments across Europe have increasingly promoted household preparedness amid concerns about extreme weather, cyber threats, geopolitical tensions and disruptions to critical infrastructure.

For British households, the government’s emerging guidance means keeping a modest supply of essentials at home rather than relying entirely on shops and public services during the first few days of a major emergency.

The initiative reflects a broader shift in UK policy toward household and national resilience, with authorities preparing for disruptions ranging from cyberattacks and extreme weather to the potential effects of international conflict.