Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 16 December 2025.
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom
Conservative
To ask His Majesty's Government in which year space weather was recognised as a risk sufficiently severe to feature in the National Risk Register.
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent
Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip), Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office), Lords Spokesperson (Northern Ireland Office), Lords Spokesperson (Wales Office), Lords Spokesperson (Scotland Office)
The severe space weather risk was first added to the National Risk Register in the 2012 edition in light of lessons from the 2010 Iceland volcanic eruptions.
All risks in the National Risk Register, including those related to severe space weather, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
