The UK Cabinet Office has published the 2013 edition of the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies.
The document provides an updated government assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different civil emergency risks that may directly affect the UK over the next five years.
According to the 2013 National Risk Register the highest priority risks are:
- Pandemic influenza – this remains the most significant civil emergency risk. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic does not change the risk of another pandemic emerging or mean that the severity of any future pandemics will be the same as the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.
- Coastal flooding – The risk is of an event similar in consequence to the 1953 east coast flooding emergency – which was the last occasion on which a national emergency was formally declared in the UK.
- Catastrophic terrorist attacks – although mass impact terrorist events are unlikely the impacts are potentially very serious.
- Severe effusive (gas-rich) volcanic eruptions abroad – such an incident could have widespread impacts on health, agriculture and transport.
The full report is available here.