(Alamy)
4 min read5 hr
Exclusive: The Conservatives are developing a policy to distribute pamphlets to every UK household advising how to respond to a civilian emergency.
The plans are inspired by European countries like Denmark, where the government uses literature to instruct the public on what steps to take within the first 72 hours.
The Tories say they also want the government to be more honest with the country about threats facing the nation, which could include declassifying information held by the state.
Shadow defence minister David Reed is leading on the party’s national resilience policies.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, the Conservative MP for Exmouth and Exeter East said the coronavirus pandemic had created a public mindset that the state can do everything for them, when, in the event of a national emergency, people will need to take steps themselves, especially in the first hours and days.
“The onus needs to be pushed back onto the citizen to say, if things are coming down the track… you need to start thinking more about yourselves and your families, and start preparing so that you can be more resilient and really start to reinvigorate that idea of being a citizen, contributing, and being part of the community,” Reed said.
“By physically giving something to someone, posting it through their door, what I want to see is the narrative in people’s minds change.”
The government is preparing to launch a public awareness campaign around household resilience later this year, with a spokesperson telling PoliticsHome: “The campaign will bring the UK in line with European countries that run similar campaigns already. We’ll announce further details in due course.”
Last month, the Financial Times reported that people would be encouraged to stockpile emergency supplies, including tinned food and bottled water, as part of the push to help households prepare for hostile state acts, cyber warfare, and extreme weather.
In an interview with Sky News Defence Insider, published on Thursday, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the UK does “need to have a national conversation about resilience”.
Streeting pointed not just to state-based threats but climate-based disruption, too, and said people should consider practical questions, like “in the event you have a power cut, would you know where you keep your torch? Have you even got matches or candles?”
Last week, the National Audit Office warned that government had not done enough to engage with households and businesses to strengthen resilience to supply chain shocks.
Reed, a former Marine, is concerned that the planned comms campaign will “fall flat” unless it goes as far as giving every household in the country a readiness pamphlet.
A version being drawn up by Conservatives, seen by PoliticsHome, seeks to communicate that, for a short period after a national emergency or major disruption, it will be up to people to take action where the government cannot help. It sets out a three-point household response, based on stockpiling supplies, making a plan and checking on each other, and lists key items to have in an emergency kit.
The European Commission has encouraged citizens to stockpile enough supplies to last for 72 hours to increase readiness, following in the footsteps of Germany and Nordic states.
“If you look at the Danes, if you look at the Dutch, and if you look at some other European countries, they produce a pamphlet, and they deliver it to every single house in the country, and it just goes through really simply in a nice, civilian-digestible way,” Reed said.
At the same time, the shadow minister said the government should look for non-military figures to communicate the importance of preparedness, especially to young people, and said ministers should “definitely” consider influencers as campaign spokespeople.
The Conservative MP argued that due to the UK having experienced peaceful decades since the mid-20th century, resilience has become “such an abstract concept”, especially for younger generations, “that you can’t even have the conversation at all”.
He referred to the experience of his 84-year-old father, born in 1942 during the Blitz in Plymouth: “That’s the last generation that has any sort of real semblance, that physical idea of border insecurity and things not being right in terms of security”.
“Work does need to be done with the younger generation because they will be helping out. They will have to help out with all these efforts,” Reed stressed.
He also called for a greater central government focus on resilience, pointing to Denmark, where they have their “own ministry for national resilience and preparedness, and they’ve got a centralised minister that has been able to work with the different departments to be able to have the conversation about what needs to be done, to be able to set targets”.