Britain’s supply chains, incluing food system, are dangerously underprepared for major global shocks such as war with Russia, future pandemics or escalating geopolitical conflicts, according to a new report that has urged ministers to adopt far stronger resilience and stockpiling measures.
The report warns that the UK is lagging behind many European nations in areas including food security, medicine reserves and emergency planning.
The findings come amid growing concern over rising global instability, including disruption caused by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, which have already increased pressure on food, fuel and raw material supplies.
The warnings are contained in research by the National Preparedness Commission (NPC), which promotes national crisis planning and is overseen by a panel including senior figures from emergency services, the NHS and experts on risk and security.
Researchers warned that Britain’s heavy reliance on imports and lack of strategic reserves leave the country vulnerable to future supply chain shocks, particularly as international relations become increasingly fragmented.
The report, launched privately at Westminster last week, puts a spotlight on the resilience of Britain’s supply chain and how it could be tested by looming dangers ranging from a fresh pandemic, the climate crisis or what is now focusing the minds of officials: a war with Russia.
“The conversation in government should shift from why we should not stockpile to how and where we might most sensibly do it. It is easy to forget that during the pandemic the UK benefited from medicines that had been stockpiled to pre-empt disrupted supplies on leaving the EU,” it said.
The report stated that when it comes to food supply, the UK is one of the least self-sufficient countries in Europe.
The government neither has a strategic stockpile nor does it require big wholesalers and distributors to hold buffer stocks. By contrast, countries such as Norway and Sweden have begun to rebuild emergency grain and food reserves while other EU states proactively encourage households to store several days’ worth of food and water for emergencies.
The report – titled Future-proofing Security of Supply in a Contested World – warned that recent global events such as the Iran war and repeated lurches in international relations raised profound questions about the future ability of the UK to access raw materials and components.
Britain also faces being squeezed by what the report describes as the “hard-nosed nationalism” of the US, the collaborations of EU states, China’s manufacturing and Russia’s war economy footing.
“It is a mistake to assume that catastrophic events will not happen,” warned the NPC report.
“The closure of the strait of Hormuz and disruption to regional air traffic due to the US-Israel war with Iran in March 2026 is the most recent thud in a drumbeat of wake-up calls about supply chain resilience,” it said.