u/simeoni_giulio

The UK Government actually publishes a surprising amount of advice on preparing for major disruption. Most of it is buried across GOV.UK reports and PDFs, so I've gone through it and pulled the useful bits together.

This isn't about building a bunker. The government's resilience planning increasingly assumes that ordinary households, businesses and communities need to be capable of coping with some disruption themselves rather than expecting normal services to continue uninterrupted.

The government's current Resilience Action Plan explicitly says that resilience cannot be managed by government alone and that individuals and households need the information and tools to improve their own preparedness. Its 2026 implementation report says a new national household-preparedness campaign is being developed around GOV.UK/Prepare. GOV.UK

What the government is preparing for

The government's National Risk Register covers dozens of potentially serious events rather than one particular looming crisis. These include major power disruption, cyber attacks on critical national infrastructure, telecommunications and data failures, flooding and extreme weather, pandemics and biological incidents, disruption to fuel, food and other supply chains, transport disruption and malicious state activity. The 2026 register is the public version of the government's National Security Risk Assessment. GOV.UK

National Risk Register 2026 – GOV.UK

The wider National Security Strategy describes resilience as part of national security and specifically discusses maintaining supply chains, energy security, critical goods, infrastructure and preparedness against external shocks. It also commits to national exercises and greater public involvement in resilience. GOV.UK

National Security Strategy 2025

What government is currently doing

The 2025 Resilience Action Plan created a much more explicit "whole of society" approach. It says government should continuously assess UK resilience, strengthen the public-sector response system and enable households, communities and businesses to prepare themselves. GOV.UK

UK Government Resilience Action Plan

The July 2026 implementation report shows what has happened since. Government says it has:

• updated the National Risk Register;
• begun a Home Defence Programme, including bringing government "War Books" back into active planning;
• accelerated departmental emergency planning;
• announced a future national Home Defence exercise;
• published cyber-resilience measures;
• introduced a new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy;
• created a Supply Chain Centre to identify and protect critical supplies;
• started strengthening Local Resilience Forums;
• run Exercise PEGASUS, described as the largest UK national pandemic exercise to date;
• begun developing a new household resilience campaign;
• continued updating GOV.UK/Prepare;
• planned further energy-resilience work and public engagement. GOV.UK

2026 Resilience Action Plan Implementation Report

The older but still relevant UK Government Resilience Framework explains the underlying system: anticipate risks, assess them, prevent or mitigate where possible, then maintain the capability to respond and recover. GOV.UK

UK Government Resilience Framework

What they are telling households to do

The most practical government material is GOV.UK/Prepare.

Government recommends preparing for emergencies which could leave you at home, without normal services, or require you to evacuate. It explicitly suggests considering the supplies required for disruption lasting several days. Prepare

Get prepared for emergencies – GOV.UK Prepare

The household list is surprisingly sensible:

• battery or wind-up torch;
• spare batteries;
• battery or wind-up radio;
• charged power bank;
• first-aid supplies;
• essential medicines for several days;
• paper instructions for essential medical equipment;
• bottled water;
• food that can be eaten without electricity or cooking;
• manual tin opener;
• hygiene supplies such as sanitiser and wet wipes;
• baby supplies where required;
• pet food and water;
• important phone numbers written on paper rather than stored solely on a mobile;
• insurance details and relevant documents accessible;
• emergency contacts and a family meeting point;
• basic emergency equipment in the car. Prepare

On water, GOV.UK says the WHO survival minimum is roughly 2.5–3 litres of drinking water per person per day, while around 10 litres per person per day provides a more comfortable allowance once cooking and basic hygiene are included. Prepare

For a family of four, three days therefore means roughly 30–36 litres as a bare drinking-water minimum, and potentially around 120 litres if trying to cover drinking, cooking and limited hygiene.

Power cuts are specifically being planned for

The Prepare site states that most UK power cuts are local and short, but acknowledges that widespread outages could potentially last several days and could affect electricity, heating, internet, mobile communications and even mains water. Prepare

Government advice on power cuts

This becomes more interesting when you look at the emergency health-planning material.

In December 2025 the four UK Chief Medical Officers published the actual scripts that have been prepared for broadcast if Great Britain suffers a national power outage.

The scenario assumes electricity may disappear without warning and that knock-on failures could include:

• mobile phones;
• internet;
• mains water;
• sewage treatment;
• fuel;
• gas supplies;
• electronic payments. GOV.UK

Because normal communications may fail, the contingency assumes important public information could have to be broadcast by BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4, which is why the household guidance recommends owning a battery or wind-up radio. GOV.UK

UK Chief Medical Officers – National Power Outage guidance

There is an entire separate batch of UKHSA research behind those scripts covering minimum water requirements, alternative drinking-water sources, sanitation, food, extreme temperatures and other public-health issues during a prolonged blackout. GOV.UK

UKHSA National Power Outage health-planning evidence

One of the more revealing pieces of planning is that the Chief Medical Officers' blackout advice explicitly assumes the power could be out for a number of days. GOV.UK

Cash is worth considering

A severe power or communications failure can also affect card terminals, ATMs and banking networks. The National Power Outage planning material explicitly includes loss of the ability to make electronic payments among the consequences being considered. GOV.UK

This doesn't mean keeping thousands of pounds at home. It does mean that having enough physical cash for basic purchases during a short payment-system outage is a rational part of preparedness.

Have more than one way of receiving information

Government advice assumes mobile networks and internet connections may not always work.

Useful backups are:

• Emergency Alerts on your phone;
• battery/wind-up radio;
• local radio frequencies written down;
• important telephone numbers on paper;
• local authority or Local Resilience Forum alerts where available. Prepare

UK Emergency Alerts information

Make an actual household plan

Government advice suggests deciding beforehand:

• where you would meet if family members cannot contact each other;
• how you would leave the house;
• where you could go if evacuated;
• who might need additional help;
• which neighbours you should check on;
• where important documents and supplies are kept. Prepare

There are also Cabinet Office community emergency-planning templates which go much further than most people realise.

Cabinet Office community resilience guides and emergency-plan templates

Food during a blackout

The Food Standards Agency also has specific blackout advice.

A closed fridge should normally remain cold for around four hours. A full freezer may remain frozen for around 48 hours, or around 24 hours if only half full. Once the electricity has been out for longer, temperature rather than appearance should determine whether refrigerated food is safe. GOV.UK

Food safety during a power cut

Alternative cooking and heating need particular care

Government guidance warns against improvising with camping stoves, barbecues or generators indoors because of carbon-monoxide and fire risks.

For generators, the UK Chief Medical Officers' emergency advice says they should be placed outdoors at least 6 metres / 20 feet from the building, with the exhaust pointing away from windows and doors. GOV.UK

Cold and hot weather advice during a national power outage

The 72-hour recommendation you've probably seen

One particularly striking document submitted to Parliament recommends preparing households to survive 72 hours without normal food, heat, water or energy and suggests keeping first-aid supplies, cash, wind-up radios and vehicles reasonably fuelled.

It argues that preparing the population for a prolonged national power outage would simultaneously prepare people for many other emergencies because electricity failure cascades into communications, banking, medicines, food, water and transport. UK Parliament Committees

That document is worth reading, but there is an important distinction: it is written evidence submitted to the House of Lords National Resilience Committee, not formal government guidance.

House of Lords National Resilience Committee written evidence NLR0014

Its 72-hour recommendation is broadly compatible with the official GOV.UK recommendation to hold supplies for emergencies lasting "a few days", but it shouldn't be represented as an official government requirement. Prepare

So what would a sensible UK household actually have?

Taking the common themes across the official material rather than preparing for one particular scenario:

• roughly three days of immediately usable food;
• at least 2.5–3 L drinking water per person per day, preferably considerably more;
• several days' essential medication;
• battery/wind-up torch;
• battery/wind-up radio;
• spare batteries;
• charged power banks;
• first-aid kit;
• basic hygiene supplies;
• some physical cash;
• manual tin opener;
• warm clothing and blankets;
• paper copies of essential phone numbers/information;
• a household emergency plan;
• supplies for children, elderly relatives, pets or medical equipment where relevant;
• a sensible amount of fuel in the car rather than routinely running it almost empty.

The objective isn't survivalism. It is being able to function for the first few days of a power, water, communications, transport or supply-chain disruption while emergency services concentrate on people who cannot support themselves.

One statistic probably explains why the government is putting more effort into this. Its 2025 preparedness survey found that only 47% of respondents had basic power-cut supplies such as torches, a radio or important numbers stored together, only 10% had agreed a family meeting point, and 19% reported having none of the preparedness measures asked about. GOV.UK

UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness 2025

The interesting part isn't that government thinks a particular catastrophe is about to happen. The documents show a deliberate shift toward expecting households, businesses, communities and government to share responsibility for resilience against a range of disruptions. That policy direction is explicit in both the 2025 Resilience Action Plan and its 2026 implementation report. GOV.UK