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Confusion as Cabinet Office confirms mobile phones will NOT be receiving emergency alert today despite message on government website
People were left confused after the Government’s website wrongly stated it would be testing its emergency alerts system again today.
Millions of iPhone and Android users received the first nationwide emergency alert as part of a Government trial into the system at 3pm on Sunday, April 23.
However people were left scratching their heads when a message appeared on the Government’s website to say it would be testing the system again on Tuesday.
The gov.uk website said: ‘There will be a service test of the UK Emergency Alerts system today.
‘Most mobile phones and tablets will not get a test alert.
The Government’s website wrongly started there was set to be another service test of the emergency alert system today
The Cabinet Office said reports there would be another test were ‘completely untrue’
The Cabinet Office said the message was uploaded in error and has since been taken down from the gov.uk website
The Government’s emergency alert system was supposed to send a test alarm to smartphones across the UK at 3pm on Sunday
‘The alert will say: This is a mobile network operator test of the UK Emergency Alerts service. You do not need to take any action.’
Following this, the Cabinet Office hit out at ‘completely untrue’ reports that it is testing the system again, leaving people confused.
The Cabinet’s official Twitter account said: ‘There are media reports claiming the Government is testing the #EmergencyAlerts system again today. This is completely untrue. There are no plans to test system again.’
One person said: ‘why the hell did the website display it then’.
Another posted: ‘You need to test it again, and ensure Three Customers also get it – many didn’t receive the test Sunday.’
A third added: ‘I received an alert earlier today but didn’t receive one on Sunday’.
The Cabinet Office confirmed that the message was uploaded in error and has since been taken down.
It comes after not every smartphone received the the first nationwide emergency alerts test at 3pm on Sunday.
While millions of phones did sound the loud 10-second siren, some reported getting the alert one minute early or late and many got no warning at all.
The Government said it will investigate why many people did not receive its emergency alert, including many who use the mobile network Three.
Others reported having the loud alarm blasted at them after turning their phones back on, despite turning them off to silence it in the first place.
The Government sent out the alert to test a system which could be used in future to warn the public of life-threatening emergencies nearby such as extreme weather.
Following the mixed results, it said it will look into the results of the test, which is the first of its type at a national level.
The Government said it will be working with all the mobile network operators to collect data and review what happened.
A Three spokesman said: ‘We are aware that a number of customers have not received the test alert. We are working closely with the government to understand why and ensure it doesn’t happen when the system is in use.’
A government spokesman said: ‘We have effectively completed the test of the UK-wide Emergency Alerts system, the biggest public communications exercise of its kind ever done. We are working with mobile network operators to review the outcome and any lessons learned.’
