What is an Emergency Alert?

The Emergency Alerts system was announced by the Government on 17 May 2021 with a Written Ministerial Statement. This was followed by a successful live test of both the alert system and localised communications in East Suffolk on 25 May 2021 and a much larger test across all of Reading on 29 June 2021.

The next Emergency Alert test is planned for a Sunday evening across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

When you receive a test alert you will not need to do anything. To learn more about Emergency Alerts, look out for the nationwide information campaign or visit gov.uk/alerts.

Emergency Alerts appear on your device's home screen. You have to acknowledge them before you can use your phone’s other features. They appear as a notification and may include telephone numbers or website links containing further information. A loud, siren-like sound and vibration will accompany the message to raise awareness of the hazard or threat.

Read the content carefully. An Emergency Alert is likely to include a link to gov.uk/alerts where further information is contained, and/or a helpline. Alerts are sent to warn you when lives are in danger, and potentially, in some cases, for test purposes. Take the appropriate action as directed and consider alerting others in the area who may not have received or seen the message.

You MUST NOT hold a mobile phone while driving or riding a motorcycle. It is illegal to do so. You must have hands-free access such as voice command, a dashboard holder or mat, or a windscreen mount and the device must not block the driver’s view of the road or the traffic. You should not read or otherwise respond to an emergency alert whilst driving or riding a motorcycle. For more information on the latest legislation around driving and using a mobile phone, follow this link for more advice: https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law.

Please be aware, the alert will appear on your device until acknowledged and you will hear a loud siren-like sound for up to 10 seconds. If you are driving, you should continue to drive and not respond to the noise or attempt to pick up the mobile phone and deal with the message. Instead, find somewhere safe and legal to stop before reading the message. If there is nowhere safe or legal to stop close by, and nobody else is in the vehicle to read the alert, tune into live radio and wait for bulletins until you can find somewhere safe and legal to stop.

You must stay in full control of your vehicle at all times. The police can stop you if they think you are not in control because you are distracted and you can be prosecuted. The law still applies if you are stopped at traffic lights, queuing in traffic or supervising a learner driver. You can, however, use a hand-held mobile phone if either you are safely parked or need to call 999 or 112 in an emergency and it is unsafe or impractical to stop.

Emergency Alerts offer a number of advantages over SMS.

Emergency Alerts require no personal information (such as telephone number, identity or location). The technology used allows a message to be broadcast to a defined area, meaning any compatible device  in or entering that area immediately receives the message. Emergency alerts are therefore one-way and do not provide any feedback on the recipients’ location or whether they have received an alert. The recipients’ telephone numbers and specific locations are not required, known or used, and no personal information on recipients of Emergency Alerts is shared by the Mobile Network Operators and no personal information is gathered by the government or the Mobile Network Operators.

Emergency Alerts will be sent across all mobile networks, including the mobile virtual networks (e.g. Asda, Lebara, GiffGaff) which have previously been left out of nationwide-SMS messages.

Emergency Alerts do not require an App to be downloaded. However, depending on your device you may need to download the latest software to ensure your device can receive the Alerts.

Emergency Alerts have been adopted by many countries internationally as an alerting capability. These countries include the USA, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

Emergency Alerts will be available in England, Scotland and Wales. The rollout in Northern Ireland is planned for later this year.

There are no charges to receive Emergency Alerts. Alerts are sent on a specific channel that is separate from normal text and data traffic. While the alerts may look like text messages, they are not and will not be charged to your bill like text messages. Additionally if you use Pay-As-You-Go and find yourself out of credit, you will still receive alerts.

Neither Emergency Alerts nor leaving the ability to receive them on in your phone settings will impact your phone’s battery life. Most people will receive them infrequently- beyond the National Welcome Message it would be rare for anyone to receive more than one per year.

The messages are one-way only. Check the contents of the message for links to further information on GOV.UK or contact numbers.

The primary language will be English. Sending dual language English/Welsh messages is also possible for alerts in Wales. We will continue to investigate the use of the technology for messages sent in other languages to increase the effectiveness and reach of the service.

We want to make sure these alerts reach as many of the target population as possible. Anyone with a compatible device in the targeted region will receive the alerts. Our research estimates that nearly 90% of mobile handsets will receive the emergency alert sent out for the National Welcome Message.

Emergency Alerts should be received on the majority of mobile handsets. However, there are some factors which might mean you will not receive an alert. These include:

For hand-held tablets, iPads cannot currently receive alerts unless connected to an iPhone. 4G/5G-enabled tablets that support a SIM can receive alerts. Some Apple Watches will receive alerts depending on whether they are attached to a phone or not.

The following options will be visible when you update your phone to the latest software.

For iPhones

For Samsung phones

Individual phones may vary, depending on which software version a customer is on.

For other Android Phones

The Emergency Alert settings are dependent on the manufacturer and model. Generally the settings can be found through one of the following ways:

For Huawei phones:

Individual phones may vary, depending on which software version a customer is on. Please note that Emergency Alerts are turned on by default.

Emergency Alerts are just one of many tools the Government has to communicate with the public about emergency situations. The service will be one source of information in the event of a life-threatening emergency. Existing procedures will still be in place, so those without a mobile will still be made aware through the news and local emergency services, for example.

As part of the public information campaign, we are working closely with community leaders and stakeholders to ensure that those communities and people who are less likely to have a 4G/5G capable device (notwithstanding tables) will be able to access the information distributed through the alerts.  We advise anyone who does not have a 4G/5G capable device to identify someone who lives near them who will be able to inform them of any Emergency Alerts being sent.

Emergency Alerts will be sent across all networks, as well as subsidiary ‘Mobile Virtual Network Operators’ such as Lebara, Giff Gaff and Tesco Mobile.

The initial roll out will be on devices that use 4G and 5G network (with the exception of tablets).

Our research indicates that nearly 90% of mobile handsets will be able to receive the alerts. We recognise that leaves some phones unable to receive them, however with the planned switch-off of 2G and 3G, we expect this percentage to rise as customers switch to newer handsets. Our communications campaign will stress the importance of knowing whether your phone can receive them as well as looking out for those who do not. Ultimately this should be considered one channel over which information will be passed- in the event of a crisis numerous other channels will also be used which may be more accessible to those with older handsets.

During the initial pilot phase, alerts will be limited to extreme weather events like flooding. Future messages are expected to include these as well as fires, public health emergencies and other life-threatening or major incidents.

The likelihood of receiving a message in any given year is low. The most frequent use is expected to be for flooding, but frequency depends on your personal proximity to threats.

It is possible to opt out of the system if you need your phone to stay concealed.

After the test, once Emergency Alerts are fully operational their use cannot be predicted as they will be used in emergencies.

The choice is yours, but we strongly recommend that people do not opt out of the service, as it is intended to warn you when lives are in danger.

Members of the public can opt out of receiving all emergency alerts, to do so search for emergency alerts in your phone’s settings. It is not possible to opt out of alerts by type of hazard, for example only receiving messages about flooding but not for industrial accidents.

We strongly recommend that people do not opt out of the service, as it is intended to warn you when lives are in danger. It is possible to opt-out but we would encourage you not to. See the website for more details.

Mobile network operator tests

To opt out of mobile network operator tests, search your settings for ‘emergency alerts’ and turn off Test alerts.

You will receive the Emergency Alert no matter what you are using your phone for.

An Emergency Alert will display as a message if a user is using an App e.g. maps for navigation. It may appear like a pop-up on your screen.

An Emergency Alert looks and sounds very different to other types of messages such as SMS ‘text messages’. You’ll know if you get an Emergency Alert because you’ll hear a loud, siren-like sound and your phone will use a distinct vibration. You have to acknowledge them before you can use your phone’s other features. They appear as a notification and may  include a phone number or a link to gov.uk/alerts, where you’ll also be able to check that an alert is genuine.

If you receive an alert but are still in doubt about the origins of the message, go to gov.uk/alerts or contact neighbours, friends or family in the nearby area to check whether they have received it too.

You can validate that an alert is real by going to gov.uk/alerts - legitimate alerts will always be uploaded here so you can check whenever you receive one.

If you believe you have received a scam SMS text, report it by forwarding it to 7726. Do not click on any links in the SMS text message. You will not be able to forward a genuine Emergency Alert message.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of fraud or cybercrime you can report it to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by phoning 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, you can report it by dialling 101.

Emergency Alerts may include a phone number or a link to gov.uk/alerts where further information will be available. Emergency alerts can only be sent by emergency responders or the Government.

Where possible, messages will be sent out during normal waking hours. However there may be situations where messages need to be sent overnight (for example for severe flooding) where it is vital to inform you as soon as possible. A public test of the system will never be carried out overnight.

In this case you will not receive an alert. However, once your phone has power, is switched on and connected to the network, it will receive the Emergency Alert assuming it is being broadcast at that time and the threat has not passed.

For hand-held tablets, iPads cannot currently receive alerts unless connected to an iPhone. 4G/5G-enabled tablets that support a SIM can receive alerts. Some Apple Watches may receive alerts depending on whether they are attached to a phone or not.