Emergency alert system put domestic abuse victims at risk, campaigners warn

The government's emergency phone alert system - deployed this week to warn of wildfires - put domestic abuse victims at risk, according to campaigners.

The BBC reports that the loud alarm, sent to all mobile phones in affected areas, could have exposed victims hiding from abusive partners. The system can't be switched off without disabling all emergency alerts permanently. The Sun carries Transport Secretary Louise Haigh's defence of the system, deployed amid what the government called an "unprecedented" wildfire threat.

The tension is permanent and has been visible since the system launched. Emergency alerts assume every phone owner wants to be found - a safe assumption for most, a dangerous one for some. The system inherited the design from its international precedents: loud, compulsory, and impossible to tailor. A phone that stays silent to preserve safety can't receive the alert that might save a life.

Domestic abuse charities have been saying this since the system's introduction. The wildfire deployment brought it into the open because the threat - real as it was - felt less existential than a tsunami or a terror attack, the scenarios the system was sold on. When the alarm is loud enough to give away a hidden phone, every use becomes a calculation: whose safety do we prioritise?

What to watch: whether the Home Office consults on a design change that lets users silence alerts without losing access to the system entirely. The technology exists - other countries allow it. The question is whether this government considers the trade-off worth the cost.