The UK Government has not yet set out how resilient it would like the UK to be to severe space weather nor what level of resilience its spending will provide, according to an official audit. For the 44-page report, visit the National Audit Office (NAO) website.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: โThe government has invested in improving the UK’s forecasting and is taking steps to increase its resilience to severe space weather. As the government develops its new severe space weather preparedness strategy, DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) and the Met Office should work collaboratively to further improve forecasting and resilience.โ
The NAO said that the Cabinet Officeโs guidance for lead government departments such as DSIT does not explain what processes should be followed, nor does it set minimum standards. The Cabinet Office told the auditors that it intends to publish new written expectations on the role by summer 2026.
According to the report, UK Government ‘does not yet understand the full range of possible impacts and cascading effects well’. The report describes the resilience of the Met Office’s UK space weather monitoring and forecasting as ‘vulnerable’. The Government ‘has yet to define actions for businesses and citizens in the event of a severe space weather emergency’, the report said. Among its recommendations, it suggests that DSIT carries out a command-post exercise on severe space weather, involvingย sectors and local responders, in the next three years.
Background
Severe space weather has been on the National Risk Register since 2011; as of 2025, the UK Government considered the likelihood of a severe space weather event occurring within the next five years to be five to 25 per cent. Space weather originating from solar activity could disrupt air travel, cause localised power outages in the UK, and disrupt satellite services such as satellite navigation. The Met Office is responsible for assessing the risk of severe space weather.
