Brits told to stock up on torches and battery radios to prepare for disasters
Britons have been urged to stock up on torches, candles and battery-powered radios to prepare for future disasters by the Government.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden has encouraged people to be prepared for a digital or network blackout, which is a growing possibility due to increasing natural disasters and cyberattacks. He warned the UK is "highly reliant" on digital devices and said people could need battery-powered radios to receive Government messages in an emergency.
The advice came as he issued the first annual statement on "risk and resilience", which has been developed to show the UK is prepared for disasters and emergencies after the Covid pandemic. In a statement to Parliament, Mr Dowden warned the risks to Britain "are evolving faster than ever". He said these include Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, the misuse of artificial intelligence, as well as extreme weather conditions such as flooding.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden encouraged people to prepare for a disaster (DW Images/REX/Shutterstock)Mr Dowden told the Times the UK needs to prepare itself for crises which could wipe out digital networks or power supplies. “The world has changed unrecognisably and our society is highly reliant on our digital infrastructure," he said. “Government needs to ensure that we are resilient in this digital age, ensuring that our structures take this into account, including considering those analogue capabilities that it makes sense to retain.”
Speaking during a visit to Porton Down, the UK’s top secret defence lab, Mr Dowden said: “What we’re also looking at is making sure that people are resilient to for example, if you had say for some reason, you had loss of power do you do people have still what we used to use? In the past you’d go down to a cupboard under the stairs, you’d have a torch or candles or whatever else.
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“Another example of that is radios. What used to be the case that everyone would be able to access a battery-operated FM radio. How many people actually have that kind of communication device that isn’t reliant on digital and electric? So what would most of us do?”
He added: “If it was a public health emergency, the relevant officials would be on [the radio] and we’d need to be able to communicate with people. We need to think about whether we have those resilient communications capabilities."
Mr Dowden announced plans for a new UK Resilience Academy and up to £10million for new research into risks that impact economic resilience. The Academy will for the first time provide learning leadership across the faculties of resilience, including emergency planning, crisis management and and citizen preparedness.
Labour frontbencher Pat McFadden welcomed the measures but asked what the Government is doing to bolster resilience in energy supplies and the "public estate", as well as in elections. He said: "Why is it that the Government's new policy is to roll back on the transition mandated by its own legislation for net zero, and prolong a reliance on international fossil fuel markets? For these failures, the British public has paid a heavy price. And how will the Government increase resilience in the public estate? Schools' capital budgets cut back under this Prime Minister's watch while he was chancellor. School roofs falling in, disrupting children's education."
He also pressed ministers to implement recommendations of Parliament's intelligence and security committee, aimed at preventing Russia and other states from interfering with upcoming elections. Mr McFadden said: "With an election coming some time in the next year, I am sure the Secretary of State would agree that we need to do all we can to ensure it is conducted in a free and fair manner."
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