National Risk Register 2025

HM Government, UK | 16 January 2025

The National Risk Register (NRR) is the external version of the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA), which is the government’s assessment of the most serious risks facing the UK. It provides the government’s updated assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a broad range of risks that may directly affect the UK and its interests. 

The NRR is aimed at risk and resilience practitioners, including businesses and voluntary and community sector organisations. The NSRA now operates as a dynamic assessment process, with risks reassessed on a more regular basis to reflect the changing risk landscape. This version of the National Risk Register is the first to align with that dynamic process, drawing from the latest risk information available.

The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: “The Government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe: our security and resilience as a country underpins our Plan for Change and all our Missions. We must be prepared for the range of risks that the UK faces. So I am pleased to present this updated National Risk Register (NRR), reflecting the Government’s latest risk assessments.

Since day one of this administration, national resilience has been a top priority. We have taken some immediate steps to strengthen the system. The Prime Minister established a dedicated Cabinet committee on resilience, that I chair. We have brought in external experts to examine our classified risk assessments, on which this publication is based, to challenge our thinking. And we have taken forward a National Exercising Programme to ensure our plans are as strong as they can possibly be.

The UK Covid-19 and Grenfell Tower Inquiries have made important recommendations on the UK’s resilience system, including how the Government assesses and manages risks. These tragedies demonstrated painfully clearly that our country was not as prepared as it should have been. The Government has now published its response to the Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 report on resilience and preparedness, setting out how we will address its findings and recommendations. We will continue with the review of national resilience that I announced to Parliament last year as a direct and immediate response to the Module 1 report. As part of this we are listening to those in society whose voices too often go unheard.

The risks we face are ever changing, and our assessments must keep pace. Events last year underscored the importance of anticipating and understanding these risks. Whether that was disorder on the streets or the impact of severe weather. The CrowdStrike IT outage revealed the widespread impacts of technology failure on services essential to our daily lives. Elsewhere we have seen the devastating floods in Valencia, and huge wildfires in the US, underlining the risks different countries face.

The National Risk Register is based directly on the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, which has now shifted to a dynamic assessment process. This means that risks can be updated as frequently as needed, driven by better evidence or our understanding of real-world changes. This edition of the NRR captures the first wave of updates under this dynamic process.

This Government is committed to sharing risk information as openly as possible, to support all those working to build the UK’s resilience with their planning, preparation and response activity. Greater transparency also means that people can scrutinise our assessments, challenging us to do things differently when needed. We need everyone to play their part in building resilience – so this National Risk Register underpins the public guidance at GOV.UK/Prepare, which sets out the simple and effective steps we can all take to prepare for emergencies.

I encourage all risk and resilience professionals to consider the risks in this publication, and join our collective endeavour to make the UK more prosperous and resilient.”