Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 4 December (HL11641), which (1) department, and (2) minister, has the lead role in taking the mobile emergency alerting systems programme forward; and what assessment they have made of how other countries who have implemented such systems have resolved any issues.
Those organisations with a key role in responding to an emergency have a duty under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) to warn and inform the public. To fulfil this duty, a variety of channels are utilised including social and broadcast media and mobile alerting such as the flood warning system. Given the cross-cutting ownership of the issue, the Minister for Implementation has asked the Cabinet Office to coordinate a review on whether there is a case for a national mobile alerting scheme, working with relevant lead departments and interested parties. This work has included a review of schemes used in other countries to inform our thinking.