Store water and tinned food to prepare for emergencies, UK citizens to be told

The British government is stepping up work on a “home defence” plan and drawing up a public information campaign about preparing for an emergency, against a backdrop of Russian threats and a cyber attack on a UK energy facility thought to be linked to Iran.

Work on the government “war book” — a manual for the defence of the UK against external threats — has been accelerated, after ex-prime minister Sir Keir Starmer warned this year that “there could be an attack by Russia on Nato as soon as 2030”.

Meanwhile, Andy Burnham’s government is preparing a publicity campaign telling households to prepare for severe disruption from events such as extreme weather or cyber attacks, government officials told the FT.

People would be told to ensure they had emergency supplies such as tinned food and bottled water as part of the campaign, the officials said.

The focus on national resilience was heightened by threats from Russia last week that there would be “consequences” for the UK following reports that British-made drones were used by Ukraine in long-range strikes.

Separately, hackers linked to the Iranian regime are suspected of being behind an attack on an unidentified small UK energy facility, prompting claims that the country’s power infrastructure is vulnerable.

Burnham has made “resilience” an early theme of his premiership and officials confirmed that work on preparing the country for severe disruption, begun under the Starmer administration, was being stepped up.

The prime minister’s approval of an emergency phone alert warning of wildfires across England and Wales this month was criticised by some, but it was a sign that he wants to be associated with efforts to keep the country safe.

The use of that alert is now being reviewed by the Cabinet Office — an exercise that officials said was standard practice — and Downing Street has insisted its use was “entirely appropriate” and had been requested by fire chiefs.

Darren Jones, former Cabinet Office minister, announced in the dying days of the Starmer administration last month that work was being accelerated on “updating the government ‘war book’”.

The government confirmed that this work was being undertaken, with an emphasis on aligning military and civilian efforts if international hostilities affected the UK. The manual was last updated in 2004.

Separately, a social media campaign is being prepared to tell households how to prepare for severe disruption, whether caused by hostile state action, extreme weather or cyber attacks.

“It won’t be anything like ‘duck and cover’,” said one government official, referring to the US cold war advice, later echoed by the UK’s own “protect and survive” publicity campaign.

“But there will be practical advice on things you can do to improve domestic resilience, like having some bottled water and tinned food. It will be common sense, not scaremongering,” the person added.

The Iran-linked cyber attack that took down a small UK energy site led to Britain’s energy bosses receiving a briefing from security experts.

But Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford university, said the UK’s energy system was “very vulnerable” to cyber attacks and that it was “time for ministers to wake up and smell the coffee”.

Potential problems included electricity interconnectors with Europe, the gas pipeline from Norway and Britain’s offshore wind farms, which he described as “easy targets because each is low value and not cost-effective to protect”.

Downing Street insisted on Monday that Britain had “one of the most resilient energy systems in the world”, while the government set out proposals to block companies from buying products from high-risk suppliers.

Joe Doetzl, head of cyber security at Hitachi Energy, which supplies grid technology including high-voltage systems and transformers, said major infrastructure operators such as National Grid had “very robust” cyber security programmes.

But smaller players connecting small individual assets to the grid — such as small solar farms — may lack comparable resources, he said.

“These may not have the same level of rigour, from an operational perspective, and in aggregate these distributed resources could cause a situation that would affect the stability of the larger grid,” Doetzl added.

One energy industry executive said: “This area is an afterthought in policy. Resilience has been a real laggard. If you go to eastern or north-eastern Europe, they have a very different attitude.”

The Cabinet Office said: “Safeguarding national security is the first priority of any government.

“We’re committed to raising awareness of simple steps households can take to make themselves more resilient, as well as driving forward the Home Defence Programme to build our country’s preparedness for various threats.”