Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the test of the UK’s emergency alert system on 23 April.

Last month’s UK-wide Emergency Alert was the largest simultaneous public message in British history. 88% of the public knew the test was coming and we reached 93% of eligible phones in the country within 3 minutes of the test alert being sent. The system is now fully operable in the event of a real emergency, and is a vital tool in our toolkit to keep people safe.

We are aware that some people did not receive the test alert. There are several reasons why this may have been the case, which we are working with the Mobile Network Operators to resolve.

However, we would like to reassure those who did not receive an alert that Emergency Alerts are just one of many tools the Government has to communicate with the public about emergency situations. Existing procedures for warning and informing the public remain in place, including the use of local emergency services and local/national news.