‘Sound that saves your life’: UK disaster alert to buzz phones on 23 April

The first nationwide test of a public warning system that sends alerts to UK mobile phones will take place at 3pm on Sunday 23 April.

The emergency alerts system is designed to broadcast urgent messages in the event of a disaster such as severe flooding, fires or extreme weather.

It has been tested in East Suffolk and Reading, but this is the first time the whole country will receive an alarm. Similar systems exist in other countries, including the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan.

Mobiles with a 4G or 5G signal will emit a loud siren-like sound, receive a message on their home screen and vibrate for up to 10 seconds.

The chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden MP, said: “Put the date in your diaries – at 3pm on 23 April, we’ll be testing our new national emergency alerts system.

“Getting this system operational with the national test means we have another tool in our toolkit to keep the public safe in life-threatening emergencies. It could be the sound that saves your life.”

The government was criticised during the pandemic for lagging behind other countries on the technology and repeatedly ignoring its own findings that an emergency messaging system could help Britain at a time of crisis. Countries such as the Netherlands and South Korea used alerts to control the spread of Covid.

The national test comes 10 years after the Cabinet Office conducted its first successful trials. In 2013 the government concluded that “not only would alerts be seen as a useful service by the public but that it would also be an effective way of getting people to take specific protective action during an emergency”.

The chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, Mark Hardingham, said: “We must use every tool at our disposal to keep people safe, and we need everyone to play their part – and the new emergency alerts system is one way we can do this. For 10 seconds, the national test may be inconvenient for some, but please forgive us for the intrusion, because the next time you hear it – your life, and the life-saving actions of our emergency services, could depend on it.”

After the test, the government says messages will only be sent out if there is an immediate threat to life. The urgent messages should reach almost 90% of mobile phones and will be able to give instructions on how to respond to emergencies.