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The cost of creating the UK’s new emergency alerts system and maintaining its operation for three years stands at a little over £25m, according to ministers.

The vast majority of this amount is accounted for by contracts with tech firms, including a three-year deal worth up to £5m and awarded by the Government Digital Service to Fujitsu to support the delivery of the core digital service. The former Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport also awarded about £16m in contracts to the UK’s four mobile network operators: O2; EE; Vodafone; and Three.

According to Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a junior minister at the Cabinet Office, DCMS signed contracts related to the alerts programme worth a total of £18.6m.

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The remainder of the £25.3m cost attributed to the first three years of the system is comprised of money spent on “security testing and legal fees”, the minister added, in response to a written parliamentary question from Labour peer Lord Harris of Haringey.

Having undergone localised trials in 2021, the system recently conducted its first nationwide test – during which a significant number of users of the Three network failed to receive the message. The network said that it would be “working closely with the government to understand why and ensure it doesn't happen when the system is in use”.

Neville-Rolfe said: “There are no current plans for a further UK-wide, or public, test of the system, though it is likely that there will be further public tests in the coming years to ensure the system is operational to help keep the British people safe.”