Government Emergency Kit List: What’s Missing and What Else You Need

This post may contain affiliate links Learn more

The government emergency kit list is a sensible place to start, but it stops earlier than most people assume. The government emergency kit list on the new Be Ready site (October 2026, replacing GOV.UK/Prepare) covers water, food that needs no cooking, hygiene basics, a torch, blankets and warm clothing, an FM radio, a power bank, cash, copies of documents, phone numbers on paper, a first aid kit and medication.

Two of the gaps we flagged when this page first went up, warmth for the house and cash, are now on it. It still has no toilet, no way to heat anything, no carbon monoxide alarm and no way to talk to anyone when the phones are down. We covered what the official list actually says in our special report, and what every item on it costs in the companion list.

This page is the follow-up: what to add to an emergency kit once the official list is done, with one sensible pick for each gap and a running cost. Every product below is one we have already reviewed, so you can read the full write-up before you buy. You do not need all of it on day one, and several items are cheap.

On a budget? We’ve put the kit that has to work without power (torches, a lantern, a radio, a power bank, a camping stove and batteries) into one Amazon basket for under £100: see our 72 hour emergency kit on a budget.

What the Government Emergency Kit List Leaves Out, Item by Item

1. Warmth at Home

The government emergency kit list now includes blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothing for the home, which the older version only had in the car boot kit. Good, because in a British winter the cold is usually the first thing you notice in a power cut.

The Silentnight Heat Genie is a fleece blanket with a foil layer that reflects your own body heat back at you, so it needs no power, no batteries and no fuel. It will not heat a room, but it makes a cold evening much more bearable for very little money.

Check Price on Amazon →

2. Water Beyond the Bottles

The government emergency kit list says bottled water for three days: 3 litres per person per day for drinking, with more needed for cooking and washing. What it does not say is what to do when the bottles run out. That is where three cheap, complementary items come in: one takes the muck out, one makes the water safe, and one filters it finer and lets you carry it.

2a. Take Out the Sediment

A Millbank bag is a gravity-fed cotton canvas filter that strains sand, silt, mud and debris out of cloudy water. It does not purify anything, and it is not meant to. It simply means the next two steps are not fighting a bucket of muddy water.

Check Price on Amazon →

2b. Make It Safe to Drink

Purification tablets release a measured dose of chlorine that neutralises harmful microorganisms. Each tablet in this pack treats between one and two litres, so the cautious rule is one tablet per litre: a reused 5-litre bottle takes five. Follow the instructions on the pack for how long to leave it before drinking. A pack of tablets weighs almost nothing and lasts for ages, which is why it earns its place.

Check Price on Amazon →

2c. Filter Finer, and Carry It

The LifeStraw Go is a bottle with a fine 0.2-micron membrane filter and an activated carbon capsule. The membrane does the safety work, and the carbon does the taste work, so it also helps take the chlorine taste out of water you have treated with tablets. It doubles as a bottle you can carry, which is handy if you need to fetch water from a standpipe or bowser.

Check Price on Amazon →

3. A Toilet

The government emergency kit list offers hand sanitiser and wet wipes for when the water is off, but nothing to replace the toilet itself. If the mains water fails, or flooding overwhelms the local sewers, that becomes a real problem within a day or so.

A cassette toilet like the Thetford Porta Potti 365 needs no mains, no power and no drains. It is standard kit on boats and in caravans, it stores in a cupboard, and it keeps waste sealed until you can empty it safely. Our full review covers the chemicals and flush water you will need alongside it.

Check Price on Amazon →

4. Cooking and Hot Drinks

The government emergency kit list is built around food that needs no cooking, and it has no stove, no fuel and no way to boil water. That is fine for a day. By the third day of cold tins, a hot drink and a hot meal make a real difference to morale.

A simple butane camping stove is cheap, light and easy to store. Use it outdoors or with plenty of ventilation, never in a sealed room, and never in a tent or a shed with the door shut. That is exactly why the next item on this page matters.

Check Price on Amazon →

5. Area Lighting

The government emergency kit list recommends a torch, and it is right that torches are safer than candles. But a torch lights one spot and needs a hand or a head to hold it. A lantern lights the whole room, so you can cook, read or move around without playing the beam across everything.

The Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern charges by USB and also runs on AA batteries, so when the internal battery runs down in a long power cut you can keep it going on spares.

Check Price on Amazon →

6. A Carbon Monoxide Alarm

The government emergency kit list mentions checking your smoke alarms, but it says nothing about carbon monoxide. In an emergency that risk rises: people improvise with stoves, heaters and generators indoors, and carbon monoxide has no smell, no colour and no warning.

The FireAngel SCB10-R is a combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm with a sealed ten-year battery, so it keeps working through a power cut. If you add a stove or any kind of heat source to your kit, add this first.

Check Price on Amazon →

7. Two-Way Radios

The government emergency kit list has a battery or wind-up radio and a paper list of phone numbers. That is good for receiving information, but it gives you no way to talk to anyone if the mobile network goes down.

A pair of licence-free PMR446 walkie-talkies like the Motorola T42 lets you keep in touch with a neighbour, a relative down the road or someone who has gone to check on the water supply. They run on ordinary AAA batteries and the range is short, but for a street or a small estate that is usually enough.

Check Price on Amazon →

8. Fridge-Cool Medication

The government emergency kit list tells you to have enough medication for several days, and to keep a backup battery for medical equipment. It does not say what to do about medication that has to stay cool. If that applies to your household, it is a genuine gap, and one worth speaking to your pharmacist about.

A FRIO wallet keeps insulin and similar medication cool through evaporation. It needs no power, no ice and no batteries. It will not suit everyone, but for the people it does suit, it is one of the cheapest and most useful items on this page.

Check Price on Amazon →

9. Cash

The government emergency kit list now includes cash, a mix of coins and notes, which the older version left out. It earns its place: if the power goes off, card machines and cash points can stop working, and the shop that is still open may only be able to take notes and coins. Keep a small amount of cash in small denominations somewhere safe at home. There is no product to buy for this one, which is why it has no button, just a reminder.

10. Power Beyond a Power Bank (Optional)

A power bank is on the government emergency kit list, and it will charge a phone a few times. A power station is the step up, and it is genuinely optional, which is why we have shown the total both with and without it. It is by far the most expensive item here, so skip it if the budget is tight and come back to it later.

The Anker SOLIX C300X is a small, portable unit that can keep phones, a router or a small lamp going for much longer than a power bank can. We think it is the sensible entry into the category.

Check Price on Amazon →

What Adding the Missing Items Actually Costs

Add it all up, at the prices checked when this page was written, and the extras come to roughly £285–£295 without the power station, or roughly £464–£474 with it. That is on top of the government emergency kit list itself, which we priced at about £213 in our companion list. It is not a precise live figure, since prices move and the buttons above always show the current price, but it is an honest ballpark.

And nobody needs everything. The government recommended emergency kit is written for every household at once, and the government emergency preparedness kit advice is deliberately generic, so your own gaps will differ. Most households already own a torch, a blanket or a stove of some kind, so the real cost of closing your own gaps is probably a lot less. Start with the toilet, the water chain and the carbon monoxide alarm, and add the rest as budget allows.

Pros and Cons of Adding These Extras

Pros

• Fills the real gaps in the government emergency kit list: cooking, toilet, carbon monoxide and communications
• Every pick is a product we have already reviewed, so you can read the full write-up first
• Most items are cheap, and several are one-off purchases that last years
• The water items work as a system, so you can treat water from almost any source
• You can build it in stages, starting with whichever gap worries you most

Cons

• It adds real cost on top of the government emergency kit list, and the optional power station adds a lot more
• Not every household needs every item, such as fridge-cool medication storage
• A stove, a lantern or any heat source brings its own safety rules, especially around carbon monoxide
• It is still a home kit, and it does not cover leaving in a hurry, which is a separate job for a grab bag

Frequently Asked Questions

What the Rest of the Team Think

Meet The Team →