The National Risk Register, in plain English
The government publishes an official list of the most serious risks facing the UK. It is written for professionals. Here is what the 2026 edition means for a family.
What it is
The National Risk Register is the public version of the government's own risk assessment. The 2026 edition came out in July. It isn't a prediction, and it is calm about what it describes. What it shows is how the systems a household leans on fail together.
Four things that matter to a household
- Power: homes lose it "instantaneously and without warning", and cuts of several days can hit whole regions.
- Water: some outages run for weeks. Tunbridge Wells went about two weeks without safe tap water last December.
- Flooding: the planning scenario is a two-week flood in a big city, with power and phones down for several weeks.
- Cyber attacks: the ones that matter to you take down how we pay and how we get food. In October, hackers in France pushed supermarket fridges to 50 °C overnight, and around 700 stores lost their chilled food.
Why they fail together
When the Iberian grid went down in April 2025, phones, card payments, trains and traffic lights all stopped within minutes. That is the pattern to plan for: not one system failing on its own, but the ones you rely on failing at once.
What to do with this
Cover three days first. That is the rung the government asks every home to manage on its own, and it is the one most families haven't done. Get it done before you think about anything bigger.
Three days, worked out for your home
The free family plan turns the register into a tick list for your household: water including wudu, no-cook halal food, power for phones, health and the faith kit.
Going further: Chapter 1: The analyst's briefing in the Playbook works through what the register means for a London family, with the cases behind it.