We helped create UK emergency alert system - but question how government is using it

As the Conservative minister who launched the UK's emergency alert system, Oliver Dowden was more than familiar with the loud bleeping sound coming from his phone earlier this month.

Like millions of people across England and Wales, the "severe alert" on 14 August warned him of a "very high risk of wildfires nationally" and against doing anything that could start a fire, including lighting disposable barbecues.

It was the biggest use of the system to date - but Dowden has now weighed in to question whether it was strictly necessary.

Dowden and two officials who helped create the government's emergency alert system are calling for Labour ministers to be up front with the public on what it could be used for in future.

"I was surprised at the decision to issue this nationwide alert and it raises some serious questions," Dowden, who served as deputy prime minister under Rishi Sunak, tells BBC News.

"The government needs to clarify the criteria for its use and why this alert met those criteria."

When he fronted the launch of the alert system in April 2023, he says it was intended for as narrow a geographic area as possible where the threat to life is imminent.

The government's own webpage , external for emergency alerts says they are only sent for "life-threatening emergencies", listing wildfires, severe flooding and extreme storms.

Two national tests of the system took place in 2023 and 2025, while 10 local alerts have been sent since its launch, all related to weather or flooding bar one in Plymouth for a World War Two bomb removal.

The day before the alert was sent earlier this month, 19 homes burned down in the west Midlands town of Stourbridge after a wildfire. The day of the alert, ministers say they were asked directly by fire chiefs to send one as crews dealt with 43 wildfires and 11 major incidents across the country.

The government's Cobra emergency committee met to discuss how to respond. After sign off from Prime Minister Andy Burnham's de facto deputy Louise Haigh, the alert was sent at 19:00 on 14 August.

It triggered a backlash on social media with some vowing to opt out of further alerts in their phone settings, domestic abuse charities and survivors saying victims with hidden phones were put at risk , and confusion about alerts sent multiple times.

Dowden's worry is that the wildfire alert was more like a public information campaign than an imminent threat to life across all of England and Wales.

"People need to know that when they receive an alert, it is a genuine imminent emergency," the Conservative MP says. "If that confidence is lost, people will simply ignore it."