Independent guidance for the United KingdomLow-data guideGlobal edition

Trust is a method

Sources, independence and editorial standards

Official sources are essential for alerts, services and incident instructions. They are evidence to evaluate, not a promise that institutions will always be timely, complete or correct.

Independent from government

Prepare Now UK is an AidWorkers.com initiative. It is not part of GOV.UK, the Cabinet Office, FCDO, the NHS, emergency services or a local authority. It receives no UK government funding and does not imply official endorsement.

How a page is built

  1. Define the decision. We identify what a person must decide before, during and after disruption.
  2. Start with primary sources. We use the organisation responsible for the service, alert, regulation or evidence.
  3. Check jurisdiction. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can use different systems.
  4. Separate status from advice. Dynamic threat levels and warnings are linked, not copied into evergreen text.
  5. Expose limits. We say when help is discretionary, registration is not a guarantee or a quantity is only a planning figure.
  6. Design for access. Advice must work with disability, care, poverty, language and failed connectivity in mind.
  7. Record the review. Each safety guide displays when its source set was last checked.

Primary source families

Household preparedness

GOV.UK Prepare, Ready Scotland, NI Direct and devolved-nation services

Live weather and flooding

Met Office, Environment Agency, SEPA, Natural Resources Wales and NI Direct

Health and medicines

NHS services, UKHSA, devolved health services and clinical teams

Terrorism and public safety

Counter Terrorism Policing, ProtectUK, MI5 and emergency services

British nationals abroad

FCDO country travel advice, consular guidance and embassy information

Systemic risk

National Risk Register, security and resilience strategies, regulators and public inquiries

National security without alarmism

Government publications now discuss greater national resilience, home defence and the possibility of direct threats to the UK. That context is real. Planning scenarios are not forecasts, and current public household guidance remains all-hazards. We do not turn strategy documents into claims that war or famine is imminent.

Read the conflict-related disruption guide

Corrections and review

Safety-critical errors should be corrected as soon as they are verified. Substantive revisions receive a new checked date. Live-service links and government recommendations should be reviewed monthly and immediately after a major policy or service change.

Report a concern through the AidWorkers.com contact route, naming the page, sentence and supporting primary source.

Open Government Licence

Some source material is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Prepare Now UK mostly paraphrases for clarity and context. Government identity marks, crests and third-party photographs are not reused.

Read the Open Government Licence v3.0.