The system enables urgent messages to be broadcast to a defined area when there is an imminent risk to life, such as wildfires or severe flooding.
It will bring the UK in line with other countries such as the US and Canada, who already have such a system in place.
A UK-wide test of the Emergency Alerts system will take place at 3pm on Sunday 23 April.
Following successful pilots in East Suffolk and Reading, the test will see people receive a message on the home screen of their mobile phone, along with a sound and vibration for up to ten seconds.
For the test, the public does not need to take any action – the sound and vibration will stop automatically after ten seconds. The alert can be swiped away or dismissed via an ‘OK’ button on the smartphone’s home screen.
Emergency Alerts have already been used successfully in a number of other countries, including the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan, where it has been credited with saving lives, for example...