UK emergency kit checklist: what the Be Ready campaign says to keep at home

The government now wants every household to keep a small emergency kit. The list is short and mostly made of things people already own. Below is the official checklist in full, with the quantities worked out for two-person and four-person homes, and an honest note on what it does not cover. Everything here comes from the Cabinet Office announcement and the Be Ready website, which we read on 27 October 2026.

What did the government announce?

On 22 October 2026 the Cabinet Office and Security Minister Dan Jarvis launched Be Ready, which the government describes as the first stage of a three-year campaign to help households prepare for emergencies. The official announcement points to severe weather, including the storms of last winter and the wildfires of this summer, and to disruption that can knock out power, water, phone signal and the internet.

The two main asks are simple: sign up to the Priority Services Register, and keep a small supply of non-perishable food and bottled water at home. Social media and radio adverts are aimed in particular at families with young children and older people, and the government says more than 500 organisations have signed up to share the campaign. The older "Prepare" website has been updated and now sits under the Be Ready name; the address gov.uk/prepare redirects to it.

Mr Jarvis put it plainly: "Those who can follow this advice should follow this advice." The British Red Cross, which supports the campaign, said: "We can't control when emergencies happen, but we can all take some simple steps to be prepared."

What is on the official UK emergency kit list?

The table below sets out every item on the Be Ready checklist. The quantities for two and four people are our arithmetic from the official figures; where the government gives no number, we say so rather than invent one. We have not added prices, because the government does not publish any and costs vary widely by brand and shop.

Source: Be Ready checklist and Be Ready for emergencies page, read 27 October 2026. "Person-days" means one person's food for one day.

How much water and food do you actually need for 3 days?

Water is the item people underestimate most. The official figure of 3 litres per person per day is for drinking only. The checklist adds that "more would be needed for other tasks such as cooking and washing", but gives no extra amount, so treat the numbers below as a minimum.

For food, the government's rule is that it should keep without a fridge and be edible without cooking. It suggests buying food "you'd usually eat", which matters: a cupboard of tins nobody likes gets thrown away. A practical way to plan is per meal. Three days for four people is 36 meals, so count how many tins, pouches, crackers and snacks that really takes. Keep a manual tin opener with the food, because an electric one is useless in a power cut. Use the oldest stock in normal cooking and replace it, so nothing goes out of date.

What should you do in a power cut or when the internet is down?

A power cut is the most likely reason you will need the kit, and it brings other problems with it. Card machines, cash machines, phone chargers, routers, electric heating and some water pumps all rely on electricity. The Be Ready advice covers this in a few steps:

• Write down the power cut number. It is 105 in England, Scotland and Wales, and 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland. Keep it on paper, not just in your phone.
• Keep a torch, not candles. The government says torches are safer.
• Keep a radio and the frequencies. A battery or wind-up FM radio still works when mobile data and broadband do not. Write your local station frequencies on a card with the radio.
• Keep a power bank charged. One full charge can keep a phone going for calls and emergency updates.
• Call 999 if you or someone else is in immediate danger.

The 2026 National Risk Register describes most power cuts as short-lived and local, but notes that longer outages of several days can happen, and that a national outage, while highly unlikely, would quickly hit water, fuel and communications too. That is one reason the government picked three days as its starting point.

Why does the checklist include cash?

Because when the power or the payment network goes down, a card is just plastic. The Be Ready page says to keep cash "in a mix of coins and notes", plus cards, in case electronic payments or ATMs are disrupted. Coins and small notes matter: a corner shop running on a hand-written tab during an outage may not be able to give change for a £50 note.

The government does not set an amount. It says the right sum depends on your household's needs. A sensible approach is to think about what you would actually buy over three days without card payments, such as food top-ups, fuel or a taxi, and keep roughly that. Our guide to how much cash to keep at home looks at the numbers, the insurance limits on cash and where to keep it safely.

What is the Priority Services Register and should you join?

The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a free list kept by electricity, gas and water companies of customers who may need extra help during a supply cut. Signing up is one of the two headline actions in the Be Ready announcement. According to the PSR website, people who may qualify include those:

• of pensionable age;
• with a health condition, disability or reduced mobility;
• who rely on electricity, gas or water for medical needs;
• with a child aged five or under at home;
• who need communication support, for example because of sight or hearing loss or because English is not their first language;
• who need temporary extra help, for example after leaving hospital or a bereavement.

Support can include advance warning of planned cuts, a priority phone line, and help such as bottled water or alternative heating and cooking during an outage. You enter your postcode on the PSR site, sign up through your electricity network, and your details are shared with the other participating companies. In Northern Ireland the equivalent is the Customer Care Registers.

Grab bag or home kit: what is the difference?

The checklist above is a home kit: supplies to help you stay put for three days. The Be Ready site also suggests a grab bag, a spare bag of essentials you can pick up quickly if you are asked to leave your home, for example because of flooding or a fire nearby.

The government does not publish a separate grab bag list, so the right-hand column is a sensible reading of the home checklist: the items you could not easily replace if you had to leave in a hurry.

What extra do babies, pets and people on medication need?

Babies and young children

The official advice is specific: keep ready-made or "ready-to-feed" formula, because you may not be able to boil water to make up powdered formula safely. Add nappies and wipes. Households with a child aged five or under are also likely to qualify for the Priority Services Register. The Be Ready site points families to the StayWise resources for teaching children about emergencies.

Pets

The checklist lists pet food and bottled water. It gives no further pet advice, so include enough for three days and anything your animal relies on.

Regular medication

Keep essential medicines and supplies with your kit, and a written list of each medicine and its dose. The Be Ready page advises requesting repeat prescriptions up to 5 working days before you run out, so you are not caught short when an emergency hits.

What does the official advice not cover?

It is worth being clear about the limits of Be Ready, because some news coverage has gone further than the government's own words.

• Cyber attacks. The Cabinet Office announcement and the Be Ready pages talk about severe weather and service outages. They do not mention cyber attacks, although when ministers first announced the campaign in July 2026, alongside the new National Risk Register, they said it would help households prepare for "cyber attacks, flooding or severe weather". ITV News reported that Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, speaking on the same day, urged people to think about disruption from cyber attacks and asked how we would cope if supermarket payment systems went down. The 2026 register added new cyber risks, including attacks on water infrastructure.
• War. The Be Ready advice does not mention war or conflict. Our beginner's prepping guide sets out what the government has and has not said on that.
• Anything longer than 3 days. The campaign is built around three days. It does not tell households what to do about a longer outage, or about money problems such as a bank going bust. If that worries you, our guide to what happens if a bank fails explains how the FSCS protects savings.

Where does gold fit, beyond the first three days?

Briefly: it does not belong in your emergency kit. Gold is a poor emergency currency. Shops do not price bread in grams of gold, a 1oz coin is worth far more than a weekly shop and cannot be split to give change, and bullion dealers may be closed or offline during a power cut. The official checklist lists cash and cards for a reason.

Where some people do use gold is as a long-term store of value held outside the banking system, a separate decision from three days of supplies. Physical gold you own outright is not a promise from a bank, so its value does not depend on any bank staying in business. But it is also not covered by the FSCS, its price can fall as well as rise, and it pays no interest. If you want to understand that trade-off, read our explainer on whether gold is a safe haven and our comparison of UK gold storage options. For the wider picture of buying gold in Britain, start at our UK gold hub.

Not financial advice. GoldVetted provides general information to help you compare options. It is not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Gold prices go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you pay. Check tax rules with the official source or a qualified adviser before you act.