Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK Emergency Alert System since its introduction.

In September 2024, the Cabinet Office delivered a thorough internal One Year Evaluation Report. Lessons identified from the report have been considered and are being implemented into processes used during an alert activation. Since the release of the cross-HMG evaluation, the capability has been used three times, each successfully mitigating danger to lives and most recently in support of organisations in Northern Ireland and Scotland coordinating the response to storm Eowyn.

Whilst the system was used sparingly in its first year of operation, it is expected that it will be used more often and for a variety of use cases as the confidence of the resilience community builds in requesting Alerts.

The Cabinet Office and other government departments continue to work closely to deliver training and facilitate exercising to empower requesting authorities to be confident in the request protocol and drafting process.