New UK Emergency Alert test happening ‘today’ sparks fresh confusion

2023-04-25

Brits have been left scratching their heads after the government appears to have flip-flopped over whether there would be a second emergency phone test today (Tuesday, April 25).

News of a second test followed on from Sunday (April 23), where much of the country received the practice notification – although it didn’t quite go to plan.

Some phone users received their notifications early while others didn’t receive theirs at all.

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Now the confusion has only been added to after a message appeared on the government website telling some phone users to expect another round of alerts.

The information, visible on the government website until this afternoon (Tuesday, April 25) appeared to claim that: “There will be a service test of the UK Emergency Alerts system today."

Titled Tuesday 25 April 2023, it said people would, "only get service test alerts if you have an older Android phone or tablet with operator test alerts turned on".

Reports even surfaced about what the alert would say: "This is a mobile network operator test of the UK Emergency Alerts service. You do not need to take any action. To find out more, visit gov.uk/alerts."

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It is thought the test would "make a loud siren-like sound for about 10 seconds".

But now, at the time of writing, the page has been taken down and it is not thought a notification is due to hit anyone’s mobile devices or tablets.

On the government website, it has now been replaced with a page saying no tests are planned for today with the Cabinet Office saying it was a mistake.

In a statement posted on its site, the Cabinet Office said: “There are media reports claiming the Government is testing the Emergency Alerts system again today. This is completely untrue. There are no plans to test the system again.”

The Cabinet Office has since said that the “vast majority” of phones received the test on Sunday.

Some customers on the network Three were among those who didn’t get the notification.

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