Prime Minister backs advice for households to keep three days of food and water at home
Andy Burnham said the government's Be Ready campaign was about sensible preparation rather than panic, as storms and a global cyber security flaw caused disruption this week.
The Prime Minister has encouraged people to keep a supply of tinned food and bottled water at home, a day after the government launched a campaign asking households to prepare for everyday emergencies.
Speaking at a wildfire resilience summit in Liverpool on Friday, Andy Burnham said unexpected events appeared to be happening more often. He pointed to the storms hitting the UK this week, which left some homes in Cornwall without power, and to the disruption caused by a major security flaw in widely used website software.
He said the aim was not to make people anxious but to help them have enough in the house to get through a difficult few days. Asked on BBC Radio 5 Live what he keeps in his own cupboard, he named beans and soup.
What the Be Ready campaign asks for
The advice was published on Thursday as the first stage of a three-year government campaign. It is built around being able to manage for three days if services such as power, water, phone signal or the internet are cut off. The same three-day benchmark is used in France, Ireland and the Netherlands, which already run similar campaigns.
The government's checklist includes:
- Bottled water, at around nine litres for each person in the home, which covers three days.
- Food that keeps without a fridge, such as tinned meat and vegetables or dried fruit.
- A battery-powered or wind-up FM radio, so you can still hear news if the internet and mobile networks go down.
- A torch, some cash and wet wipes.
- An extra supply of any regular medication.
A free step most people can take. Ministers have also highlighted the Priority Services Register, which energy and water companies use to identify customers who may need extra help in an emergency. Signing up costs nothing.
Who the campaign is aimed at
The government said radio and social media adverts would run over the coming weeks and months, with a focus on families with young children and older people, who are among those most affected when services fail. It said more than 500 organisations, including charities and businesses, had signed up to share the advice.
The Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said the advice was not prompted by any particular piece of intelligence and is about national resilience in general. The Cabinet Office, which published the advice, said the government has published resilience advice for households since May 2024, and that much of it is unchanged. The old Prepare website has been given new branding and messaging rather than being rewritten.
The idea is that if households that are able to look after themselves for a short time do so, emergency services can concentrate on the people who need help most. The full checklist is on the Be Ready pages of GOV.UK.
