Phone users who receive the message will not be able to use their device until they verify it. The emergency alert system on their phones called Downing Street amid backlash from Conservative MPs.
Millions of mobile phones across Britain will emit a loud 10-second beep at 3pm on Sunday as part of testing a new electronic system. warning, which is intended to alert the public about natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
Phone users who receive an accompanying text message will not be able to use their device until they acknowledge it, although those who do not wish to receive such alerts can manually opt out by changing their device settings.
Domestic violence and road safety charities are warning of the potential consequences of alarms going off suddenly, and older people are being urged to stay “on the lookout” for fear that scammers could use it for their own purposes.
' Ability to warn people of serious danger'
Asked about criticism of the warning, a spokesman for the prime minister said: “This is about helping us protect the population from emergencies such as floods.
“This will give the government and emergency services the ability to send alerts to people’s phones when there is a risk to life and people need to act.”
“We have conducted an extensive five-week communication campaign and successful tests in East Suffolk and Reading where we found none of these problems. We encourage people not to turn it off unless it's right for them.
“Obviously people are free to make their own decisions about what is right for them, so we don't prescribe. But we think it's a system that can alert people to a serious danger. So of course we will encourage people to register.”
Anger erupted on Tuesday evening over the decision to award Fujitsu a £5.7m contract for a public address system despite its role in the Postmaster IT scandal that has affected hundreds of employees and led to an investigation.
Victims eventually received significant payouts more than two decades after the initial fiasco.
Sir John Redwood, Margaret Thatcher's head of politics at No. 10, questioned the need for the multi-million pound . expenses and suggested that an alert system would not be needed so that the public would be able to know if there was an emergency.
'Strange and disappointing'
Lord Arbuthnot, a fellow Conservative who led the calls for an investigation, told MailPlus that the decision to work with Fujitsu again was «strange and disappointing.»
It came as Conservative supporters criticized the new system and Jacob Rees-Mogg , a former business secretary, said he turned off the alert because he didn't want the government to «yell at him.»
Mr Rees-Mogg said on his UK news programme: “If something is approaching a big catastrophe, are we supposed to assume that people are so stupid that they don't pay any attention to what's going on? And it seems to me that this is the misguided role of the state.
“It goes back to the babysitter state, warns us, tells us, spoils us when instead they should let people get their lives and make smart decisions for myself. And it's actually a massive intrusion of information that was in use during Covid.»
'Some might be scared by this'
A source in Whitehall responded to the criticism, noting that Mr Rees-Mogg was Cabinet Minister at the time the policy was signed.
Craig McKinley, the Conservative MP for South Thanet, said he was «quite ambivalent» about the system and wondered why it was suddenly considered necessary.
“This is what we managed to live and breathe without all these years,” he said.
“Some people, I think, especially the elderly, it can be scary, wondering what it all means. I don't see it as an imperative.»
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