Members of the public and businesses need to think more about how they would cope with natural disasters, cyber-attacks or state-sponsored terrorism, the defence secretary has said. Wes Streeting warned people needed to be more aware of emerging risks facing the UK and make plans to deal with them. He added that the government was launching a “national resilience conversation” to raise awareness, including advice for households like stocking up on food, bottled water and first aid supplies. Streeting also said that cyber incidents – like the recently discovered critical security flaw in the programming language which powers much of the internet – will happen “more and more”.
Streeting told BBC One’s Question Time that the UK is facing a greater threat to the country, “than we have certainly for most, if not all, of my lifetime”. Speaking to an audience at the UK Gun Hall Plant in Telford earlier on Thursday, where it was announced production of tank gun barrels would return to the UK, he spoke of “everyday challenges” facing households. He pointed to wildfires burning this summer and the flooding that is expected this winter. Streeting said the public need to be prepared for “increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks” on businesses, or supply chain disruption caused by “hostile state actors or terrorists”.
The defence secretary referenced the critical security flaw in the PHP programming language which has left organisations around the world scrambling to update their systems. In the UK, 32 government services were offline while the potential cyber-security issues were addressed. “It’s not just from foreign states engaged in espionage or sabotage; it’s also organised criminals,” Streeting told Question Time. “In this world of AI that we live in… it does also present threats if people are innovating and pushing against conventional [cyber] defences.” The government hopes to improve the UK’s preparedness for emergencies, such as those caused by increasingly likely severe weather events and cyber-attacks by hostile states.
Incidents could leave the public without access to everyday services such as mains water, sewage, phones and the internet. The “Be Ready” campaign encourages households to stock up on supplies to survive for three days, including non-perishable food, bottled water, a torch, sleeping bags, and first aid items. It also suggests having a FM radio for updates during outages, and writing down the frequencies of any national or local radio stations you use for news. Asked by a Question Time audience member whether the campaign amounted to scaremongering, Streeting said the government want “people to be alert but not alarmed”.
He said that there was not a “specific thing we’ve got in mind” when putting out the advice. But, he added that the supplies on the list “might help you through some power cuts, or might also help you through if… your local shop’s subject to a cyber-attack and your card isn’t working at the till”. Security Minister Dan Jarvis MP said the advice will ensure emergency services can prioritise people who need more support during crises, and hopes it will “improve our resilience as a nation”. It follows on from similar campaigns by European countries, like France, Ireland and the Netherlands, where the advice is a “normal part of everyday life”, he added.
Last month Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said people should prepare for extreme weather as the strongest El Niño event in a generation develops over the Pacific Ocean. She said the powerful natural climate phenomenon will lead to “more extreme storms in this country”, and that households should stock up on food to be more resilient. Her comments came as an National Audit Office (NAO) report warned Britain’s food supply chain is vulnerable to plant or human disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and extreme weather. The NAO said the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) had not done enough in recent years to improve supply chain resilience, and that UK households are less prepared for emergencies than those in several other countries such as Finland and Sweden.
The government launched its national security strategy last year, which warned that the UK must “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”. It said the nation was “in an era in which we face confrontation with those who are threatening security”, and referred to Russia’s war against Ukraine and “Iranian hostile activity on British soil”. The government said building national resilience meant reducing reliance on others and ensuring UK supply chains and energy security could be maintained “even in times of crisis”. Do you have any views, comments or questions about this story?
