Why are we being told to keep three days of food and water? What ministers and Kent’s risk register say

Ministers say the three-day advice is not a response to any specific threat. Here is what the official record says about war, AI attacks and the risk of Kent losing power and phones for days.

The Government is asking households across the UK to keep three days of bottled water, non-perishable food and other basic supplies at home, as part of a three-year campaign called Be Ready that launched on 22 October 2026. Ministers say the campaign is not a response to any specific or imminent threat, but the official record shows real government planning for cyber attacks and war, and Kent’s own risk register describes scenarios in which parts of the county could be without power for up to a fortnight, and most landlines could be down for a week.

Some social media posts have linked requests like this to war or an AI attack. No government found by KLN describes its household preparedness advice as a response to an expected AI attack. What the published record does show is that severe weather has already cut power to millions of homes, that cyber agencies say AI is making attacks easier to carry out, and that Kent residents have recent, direct experience of days without water.

What you are being asked to do

The Government’s advice is at GOV.UK/BeReady. The core ask is three days of bottled water and non-perishable food. The checklist also covers a torch and spare batteries, a charged power bank, a battery-powered or wind-up radio, essential medication and first aid, warm clothing and blankets, and some cash.

The written ministerial statement says many of the steps are free and items can be gathered over time. The Priority Services Register, which gives extra support during outages to those who need it, is also free to join. UK Power Networks says approximately 390,000 of the 3.4 million customers on its register are in Kent.

In Kent, the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum advises residents to call UK Power Networks on 105 during a power cut, not their energy supplier.

What ministers say and how the wording changed

On 27 October, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons: “I want to be clear from the outset that we are not launching this campaign because of any specific or imminent threat.” Pointing to Storm Boelo that weekend, he said: “Think of the people I met in Cornwall and those in countless other communities across the UK, including the tens of thousands of people who were without power this very weekend.”

The Cabinet Office launch release of 22 October says the campaign is “in line with European peers including France, Ireland and The Netherlands” and quotes Jarvis on “everyday emergencies like severe storms”. It does not mention cyber attacks, AI or war.

That is a change from July. When the campaign was announced on 14 July 2026, Darren Jones, then Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said: “AI offers new ways for criminals to carry out cyber-attacks against us, as well as offering huge opportunities for our economy and security.” He said the campaign would help people prepare for “severe weather or a cyber-attack, which can impact access to power, water, or phone signal.”

Cyber attacks and AI were in the July announcement. The Be Ready homepage still says: “From severe weather to cyber attacks, emergencies can disrupt the services you rely on.” Neither appears in the October launch release. KLN asked the Cabinet Office why. It sent a holding reply but had not answered by the deadline.

The war argument

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard put the question directly to Jarvis in the Commons on 27 October: “there have been many storms over the last 80 years in Shropshire, and indeed across the country, and we have never been given this advice before. If this is about war preparedness and being on a war footing, as the Defence Secretary has suggested we should all be, I think the Government should just come clean and treat the British public with a little bit more respect.”

Jarvis replied that the campaign “is about taking the simple, straightforward steps to be ready for everyday emergencies such as severe storms or flooding” and that the Government was also “making sure that we are properly prepared for the very severe threats we face from countries such as Russia.”

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has spoken separately about Russia. On 25 October, LBC reported him telling the Telegraph: “By 2030, their force strength and war economy could put them in a position to attack” and “That gives us a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: to be ready with our allies to fight and win.” Those quoted words do not mention the Be Ready campaign. Asked about the advice on 22 October, he said: “we want people to be alert but not alarmed”.

Government planning does cover war. The National Risk Register 2026 includes a scenario of an adversary attacking the UK mainland “using a combination of conventional missiles and cyber operations”, and the Government has committed to a national home defence exercise in 2027. The Government describes the register as a planning tool “not intended to be a prediction of future events”.

The AI question

The National Risk Register 2026 states that “AI can automate the process of launching cyber-attacks, making them faster, more efficient and lower the barrier for entry.” It sets out a worst-case scenario in which a malicious cyber attack on a critical electricity system causes a national power outage, also hitting mobile and internet telecommunications, water, sewage, fuel and gas. It adds: “Great Britain has never experienced a nationwide loss of power and the likelihood is low, however, similar events have occurred internationally due to natural hazards rather than cyber attacks.”

The National Cyber Security Centre said in June 2026 that it had managed more than 200 cyber incidents affecting UK critical national infrastructure and its supporting ecosystem in the year to May, with around 75 per cent believed to be linked to state actors. It assesses that “by 2028 AI-enabled cyber capabilities will likely be used by attackers” against legacy technology across critical infrastructure.

The Government’s AI Security Institute tested Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview on a simulated attack on operational technology, the kind of system that runs physical equipment. The model failed in April 2026, and a later version completed the task in 3 of 10 attempts in May. The institute says its test ranges lack “active defenders and defensive tooling” and that it is unclear “how these capabilities will translate against defended, real-world systems.” KLN found no case of an AI-driven attack switching off a power grid or phone network.

On 22 June, the heads of cyber agencies in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand said of frontier AI: “The timeline is not years, it is months.” That statement was addressed to business leaders and does not mention power grids or telecoms.

The timing has added to the speculation. On 21 October, the day before Be Ready launched, emergency fixes were released for serious flaws in PHP, software used by many websites, and the National Cyber Security Centre told organisations that could not apply mitigations they “should consider taking the system offline”. BCS, the chartered institute for IT, says the flaws were found using AI models, with the breakthrough in August 2026. That is after the campaign was announced in July.

The same question has been put to ministers in Japan, where the new Disaster Prevention Agency opened on 2 November 2026. Disaster Minister Goshi Hosono issued a request asking people to stock at least three days, and ideally a week, of water and food. The text names earthquakes and an eruption of Mount Fuji. At a press conference on 30 October, a reporter asked about speculation over a third world war and AI attacks. Hosono said that talk of information about a crisis such as war, or of earthquake prediction, was “not the case” (KLN translation of the official record).

What has actually switched things off

Storm Darragh in winter 2024-25 left over 2 million homes without power, with some customers off supply for up to a week. The Heathrow substation fire in March 2025 was most likely caused by moisture entering equipment, according to the final report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The Spain and Portugal blackout of April 2025 resulted from “a combination of many interacting factors” including voltage control, and the European grid operators’ final report does not attribute it to a cyber attack. In Berlin in January 2026, a suspected arson attack on power cables cut supply to as many as 45,000 households. A left-wing extremist group claimed it, and police called the claim credible.

Cyber attacks have caused disruption elsewhere. In December 2025, coordinated attacks hit about 30 renewable energy sites and a heat and power plant in Poland, though Poland’s CERT reports that heat supplies to consumers were not disrupted. In the UK in July 2026, a small energy generator was reportedly offline for four days after a suspected Iran-linked cyber attack, though the attribution is unconfirmed. Energy minister Michael Shanks described it as a “small-scale energy generator” and it had no noticeable effect on UK supply.

What Kent’s register says and how residents answered

The Kent Community Risk Register, published by the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum at kentprepared.org.uk, rates failure of the national electricity transmission network as “very high” risk. That rating reflects potential consequences, not necessarily likelihood: the register explains that such risks “may have a high or low likelihood of occurrence.” The scenario described is a total failure lasting up to five days, with some areas potentially without power for up to 14 days.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO), which is responsible for restarting the national grid, told KLN: “Our restoration plans are compliant with the Electricity System Restoration Standard ahead of the December deadline and our latest modelling shows we can meet the requirement to restore at least 60% of electricity demand within 24 hours in each of our seven Restoration Regions.” It did not give a time for full restoration or a figure for the South East, and said it would not comment on individual elements of its restoration plans.

Regional electricity failure and simultaneous loss of all fixed and mobile communications are both rated “high”. The communications scenario describes most fixed-line connections offline for seven days and mobile limited to “limited 2G coverage” from back-up generators. A Kent and Medway Resilience Forum spokesperson told KLN the register was last updated in February 2026, and that risks including national power outage, various cyber risks and disruption to water supply are now being reviewed. “The CRR will be refreshed when this work is completed,” the spokesperson said. On cyber risks, including those “potentially enabled by advances in AI”, the forum said its scoring “reflects the national assessment”.

If mobile and landline services were both lost, the forum said it would follow the national plan to broadcast public information on BBC Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio Kent, “which is why residents are encouraged to ensure access to an FM Radio”. Messages would also go out on posters and notice boards, and partner organisations may use buildings such as fire stations and libraries, as well as community spaces, as points for sharing information.

Kent residents have recent experience of supply failures. Around 24,000 homes in Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Frant and Eridge lost water or saw pressure drop in late 2025, with a boil-water notice lasting about nine days. Storm Goretti in January 2026 brought a second wave, with around 25,000 properties across Kent and West Sussex without water or with intermittent supplies at the height, and a major incident declared. Kent County Council later launched a Water Resilience Partnership.

A Cabinet Office survey published in August, with fieldwork carried out between 27 February and 11 May 2026, found that 48 per cent of Kent respondents considered a water outage in their area likely within two years, compared with 31 per cent across the UK. That is the clearest gap between Kent and the national figure. On other measures the differences were smaller: 36 per cent of Kent respondents thought a power cut lasting three days or more was likely, against 35 per cent nationally. The Kent sample was 242 people, which carries a margin of about six points either way, so smaller gaps may not be meaningful. Fifty-six per cent of Kent respondents said their household was slightly or not at all prepared, against 50 per cent nationally. Seventeen per cent of Kent respondents said they had seen preparedness advice in the past 12 months, against 24 per cent nationally.

The forum said loss of drinking water is rated a medium risk in the register, and that recent water outages in Kent and Medway “may potentially have had some bearing on the survey results”. It said there is “more work to do to help more residents to learn how to become better prepared for disruptions such as utility outages”. Kent County Council said printed copies of the forum’s Preparing for an Emergency booklet are available from all libraries in Kent and Medway.

Elsewhere in Europe

Sweden’s government brochure is titled “In case of crisis or war” and asks people to manage for at least a week, stating that “War is being waged in our corner of the world.” The EU’s 2025 Preparedness Union Strategy sets a 72-hour self-sufficiency target covering all hazards including armed conflict. KLN found no joint G7 or NATO instruction to households; these measures date from different times and give different reasons.

The Kent checklist from the official guidance

Three days of bottled water
Three days of non-perishable food
A torch and spare batteries
A charged power bank
A battery-powered or wind-up radio
Essential medication and first aid supplies
Warm clothing and blankets
Some cash
Sign up to the Priority Services Register if you or someone in your household is eligible (free)
In a power cut, call UK Power Networks on 105, not your energy supplier

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Why are we being told to keep three days of food and water? What ministers and Kent's risk register say Quiz

8 questions

Sources

Right of reply: Kent Local News put questions to the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, Kent County Council, UK Power Networks, the Cabinet Office, NESO and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 2 November 2026, with a deadline of 5pm on 5 November. The Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, Kent County Council and NESO responded, and their answers are reflected above. Kent County Council also said it is working with partners in the forum to promote Be Ready, holds response plans for incidents involving a loss of power or communications, and is working with all water companies after several water supply disruptions over the past 12 months. UK Power Networks provided a statement and said it does not comment on security measures. The Cabinet Office sent a holding reply but no answers by the deadline. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero asked to discuss the questions by phone and had not provided written answers by the deadline. Any later response will be considered for an update.

Picture: Illustration generated by Kent Local News using Leonardo AI. Illustrative image; not a photograph of a real place, person or event.

Published: 9 November 2026

Quotes are taken from official records and published statements. Streeting’s 25 October remarks are reported from LBC’s account of his Telegraph interview. Japanese quotations are Kent Local News translations. If you believe anything here is inaccurate, contact editor@kentlocalnews.co.uk; see our corrections policy.