Emergencies: Mobile Phones
The question
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the press release, "Emergency Alert to be sent to England and Wales as Government steps up wildfire response with funding, military support and BBQ ban", 14 August 2026, how many mobile phones in England received (a) two alerts, (b) three alerts, (c) four alerts and (d) five or more alerts.
Answered by Cabinet Office
The Emergency Alerts capability is delivered through cell broadcast technology. This means that the Government does not gather information about individual handsets, including whether or not an individual received an alert. It is therefore not possible to verify how many phones received two or more alerts.
Receiving multiple duplicate alerts is a known technical issue, and we acknowledge that receiving multiple alerts can be distressing. This is more likely if you are moving, such as by car or train, as your phone will connect to multiple different cell masts, or if you have multiple SIMs linked to one device. This is due to each network operator being sent a single activation for their connected devices.
In Wales and along the Welsh border, alerts were broadcast in both English and Welsh, in line with our legal responsibilities under the Welsh Language Act.
The Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service are working closely with all Mobile Network Operators to identify mitigation measures to reduce the frequency of duplicate Alerts. The government is committed to continuously improving the Emergency Alerts service.
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