Getting warnings and news

In a serious emergency, reliable information matters as much as any supply. Here’s how it works in the UK.

Emergency Alerts on your phone

The government can send an Emergency Alert (a loud sound and a message) to mobile phones in an area at risk, for example severe flooding. It’s the UK’s official public-warning system, it’s free, and most phones already have it switched on. There’s no app and no sign-up; you can check it’s on under Emergency alerts in your phone’s settings.

A radio for when the signal is down

Phone networks can fail in a big emergency, so keep a battery or wind-up radio with spare batteries. There is no single “emergency frequency” in the UK: the advice is to tune to local and national radio for information. Note your local BBC and commercial station frequencies in advance; if one is off air, search across the FM and DAB bands for a station still broadcasting.

A note on Long Wave

You may have heard that BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz Long Wave was once a national emergency fallback. That’s history. The Long Wave service was switched off in 2026, so don’t rely on it. Use Emergency Alerts and local or national radio instead.