Emergency alerts

Emergency Alerts is the mobile phone warning system run by the UK government. Its own site at gov.uk/alerts describes it as a system that provides warning and advice in a life-threatening emergency. This page sets out what the site says about how it works, as it stood on 29 October 2026, when it carried a beta label and no current alerts.

Who sends an alert and why

The site says you may get alerts about any type of life-threatening emergency, and gives wildfires, severe flooding and extreme storms as examples. Alerts will only be sent by the emergency services, or by government departments, agencies and public bodies that deal with emergencies.

The National Risk Register 2025 adds that the service is used to issue urgent messages when there is a live or imminent risk to life and specific instructions on how to respond are required. It records that the service has been used as part of the severe weather and flood warning response, and in February 2024 for a residential evacuation in Plymouth. The UK Government Resilience Action Plan 2026 Implementation Report records that during the storms of January 2026 the Cabinet Office issued two emergency alerts to approximately 500,000 people across the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall on Thursday 8 January.

What happens on your phone

When an alert is sent, your mobile phone or tablet may make a loud siren-like sound even if it is set on silent, vibrate, and read out the alert. The sound and vibration last for about 10 seconds. The alert includes a phone number or a link to the GOV.UK website for more information.

You get alerts based on your current location, not where you live or work. You do not need to turn on location services to receive them. The government does not need to know your phone number or your location to send you an alert.

What to do

The instruction on the site is short: when you get an alert, stop what you are doing and follow the instructions in the alert.

If you are driving or riding, do not read or respond to the alert. Find somewhere safe and legal to stop before reading the message. If there is nowhere safe and legal to stop and nobody else in the vehicle can read it, you can listen to news on live radio to find out about the emergency. The site reminds readers that it is illegal to use a hand-held device while driving or riding.

If you cannot receive alerts

If you do not have a compatible device you will still be informed about an emergency. The site says the emergency services have other ways to warn you when there is a threat to life, and that Emergency Alerts will not replace local news, radio, television or social media. The warnings and who issues them page describes the other warning routes.

If you have a vision or hearing impairment, audio and vibration attention signals will let you know you have an alert if accessibility notifications are enabled on your device.

Language

Alerts are sent in English. In Wales they may also be sent in Welsh.

Scams

The site states that the service will never send you emails or ask you to provide personal details. Guidance about the service and details of past alerts are published on the site, and you can check there whether an alert you received is genuine. If you get an email claiming to be from the service, the site says it could be a phishing attempt or a scam, and asks you to report anything suspicious through the gov.uk page for reporting suspicious emails and websites.

Where it sits in the system

Alerts are one tool among several. The duty on Category 1 responders under section 2(1)(g) of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to warn and inform the public is met through many channels, and the Met Office, the Environment Agency and the electricity networks each run their own warning services. An emergency alert is reserved for the cases the site describes: a threat to life, with instructions people need now.