Be ready for emergencies, government guidance.

The UK Government has published updated guidance to help people Be Ready for Emergencies, providing practical information on how individuals, households and communities can prepare for a range of disruptions.

The three-year campaign aims to improve public understanding of how to respond to everyday emergencies and periods of disruption, including severe weather and interruptions to essential services.

It follows research indicating that only 13% of people in the UK feel prepared for an emergency that could cut them off from the services they rely on. A further 84% said they wanted the Government to provide more information about how they could improve their preparedness.

Three days of household preparedness

The updated guidance encourages people to consider how they would manage for three days during an emergency.

Key recommendations include keeping bottled water and non-perishable food at home, preparing a checklist of essential items and ensuring that people who qualify are registered with utility companies' Priority Services Registers.

The Government has emphasised that preparedness does not need to be expensive, and that people can build up their supplies gradually according to their circumstances.

The guidance is organised around four themes:

✅ Be ready for emergencies: Simple steps to improve personal and household preparedness, including planning for situations where everyday services may be disrupted.

✅ Play your part: Recognises the important role that communities, neighbours, volunteers and local networks can play before, during and after emergencies.

✅ Be informed about hazards: Provides information on the risks that could affect the UK, helping people better understand local hazards and potential impacts.

✅ Sign up for extra help: Highlights the Priority Services Register, which can provide additional support for eligible people during outages and other disruptions.

➡️ You can see the new campaign here: Be ready for emergencies - Be Ready

➡️ The Lancashire Resilience Forum website has a huge amount of information from a wide range of organisations on how you can prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies which can be accessed at www.lancashireprepared.org.uk