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Written question asked by Yasmin Qureshi (Labour) on Thursday, 11 September 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 September 2025. It was answered by Dan Jarvis (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 October 2025 on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

Emergencies: Mobile Phones

Question

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of emergency alerts being displayed in the language that the recipient's phone is set to.

Answer

The Emergency Alert system is a UK Government capability that allows time critical life saving information to be broadcast to phones within a certain area.

English is the primary language Emergency Alerts are sent in. This is to ensure standardisation in message clarity and avoids the risk that any rushed translation may result in messaging which poorly conveys the necessary action to the recipient. However, where practicable, alerts impacting Wales will be sent in both English and Welsh.

Local Resilience Forums also work with partners in a local area to alert people of an emergency. Owing to their local knowledge of each area, the Local Resilience Forums are well-equipped to ensure the relevant information is communicated to non-English speakers.

The Cabinet Office will consider the feasibility for future technical improvements to the system in which an alert would come through in the language set by the individual user.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
76563
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Languages Emergencies Mobile phones Warnings
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk