This requirement is defined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

The warnings are issued for two purposes.

1. To enable national regional and local emergency responders and the MoD to trigger their plans to protect the public from weather impacts in advance of an event and to help them recover from any impacts after the event.
2. To alert the public to think in advance of high impact weather about actions they may need to take to stay safe.

Responders (1 above) are classified into two categories.

1. Category 1 responders are those organisations at the core of emergency response (e.g. emergency services, local authorities).
2. Category 2 responders are 'co-operating bodies' who, while less likely to be involved in the heart of planning work, will be heavily involved in incidents that affect their sector (e.g. Health and Safety Executive, transport and utility companies).

This online registration system is designed for Category 1 and Category 2 responders on the whole. It enables you to register for the NSWWS and keep your details up to date. This new system will enable you to register up to 12 recipients. Each recipient is able to choose the delivery method of the warning along with weather criteria and regions. The methods of delivery will now include fax, e-mail, SMS (alert) and ftp.

To ensure the warnings reach you in good time, it is essential that we have your latest contact information. Failure to update your details may result in non-delivery of severe weather warnings. This non-delivery ultimately impacts on the effective dissemination and management of the service. Please note, therefore, if we are unable to deliver severe weather warnings, on three consecutive occasions, to a recipient due to incorrect delivery details, we will remove that recipient from our delivery system.

The Primary Contact will be required to re-register this recipient if they still have a requirement for warnings. It is therefore imperative that all registration details are correct and up to date. Please check, on a regular basis, that the details we hold on your organisation are up to date. On a monthly basis an administration message will be issued to primary contacts as a reminder.

The Met Office stores any personal details in line with the Data Protection Act 1998.