UK Emergency Alerts test – put the date in your diary now

The UK is to hold a national test of Emergency Alerts at 3pm on 23 April. This is an alert which will be sent to all 4G and 5G mobile phones and will sound and vibrate for up to 10 seconds.

The system will only be used if there is an urgent message to be sent out to a geographical area, and where there is imminent risk to life. The government envisages using it to alert people to wildfires or severe flooding.

The USA and Canada, the Netherlands and Japan use this kind of system already. There have been successful pilots in East Suffolk and Reading.

The alert on 23 April will comprise a text message on the phone’s home screen with sound and vibration.

Nobody needs to do anything about it or take any action. The phone user can swipe the message away or click ok and then continue to use their phone as normal.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden MP, said: “Put the date in your diaries – at 3pm on 23 April, we’ll be testing our new national Emergency Alerts system.

“Getting this system operational with the national test means we have another tool in our toolkit to keep the public safe in life-threatening emergencies. It could be the sound that saves your life.”

working with mobile broadcasting technology it will provide a means to get urgent messages quickly to nearly 90 percent of mobile phones in a defined area when there is a risk to life, and provide clear instructions about how best to respond.

Best practice of Emergency Alerts in other countries have shown that they work more effectively in a real emergency if people have previously received a test, so they know what an alert looks and sounds like.

The system will be used very rarely – only being sent where there is an immediate risk to people’s lives – so people may not receive an alert for months or years.

• You can find out further information on Emergency Alerts, including what they look and sound like at gov.uk/alerts