ABSTRACT
There has been much discussion as to the degree to which the government should provide the public with information on the terrorist threat. It is generally agreed that a balance should be found between keeping the public as fully informed as possible without causing panic or spreading alarm – people should be alert but should also ‘carry on as usual’. The main argument put forward in this short article is that the general public should be better informed about the nature of the terrorist threat and its possible consequences and that this will help us to be better prepared if a major attack takes place. Far from panicking the public, the National Steering Committee on Warning and Informing the Public has argued that people ‘are better able to accept … risk if they understand the protective action they should take in the event of an emergency’.1 More information (on both the nature of the threat and what action to take in the event of an attack) would also help to overcome the problem of apathy that prevails in many parts of our society (indeed most of it) towards the threat and will encourage greater numbers of people to take note of it.2 3
The government has made efforts to inform the public of the nature of the terrorist threat, what it is doing about it, how it is preparing for the possibility of a successful attack and what the public can do. One of the ways it has done this is through ministerial statements and through placing information on the websites of the Home Offi ce, the Health Protection Agency, London Resilience, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police.4 In 2004 the Home Offi ce website put out a joint assessment of the threat from the JTAC. Also included was an outline of the government’s position on public information:
It remains the Government’s policy to issue warnings when the public can take action in response to a specifi c threat. There are no such warnings currently in force. However, given the threat picture, members of the public should always remain alert to the danger.5
