National Attack Warning System (Hansard, 12 March 2003)

§ The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Macdonald of Tradeston)

The National Attack Warning System (NAWS) is designed to warn the public of air attack in wartime. The intention is that it should be maintained in a state of readiness during peacetime such that final additional stages of work can be quickly completed in a time of tension to bring it up to full operational readiness, and all technical work on peacetime provision of the system is now complete. Further work on procedural documents is scheduled for completion before the end of the current financial year.

When brought up to full operational readiness during the time of tension, NAWS is able to transmit a warning message nationwide within 60 seconds of the instruction. At the same time the public would be advised to ensure that people were listening to a radio or television and hence able to hear the warning message at all times.

During peacetime, warnings can be issued by the BBC as part of its normal broadcasting arrangements. The BBC is able to transmit a unique warning message nationwide within 10 minutes of an instruction to do so when it is on standby or 30 minutes when it is not. NAWS is much more robust than the normal broadcasting arrangements, and hence it would remain capable of issuing further information to the public nationwide during and after an attack.