BU Professor Lee Miles gave evidence to the House of Lords National Resilience Committee as a part of a televised public evidence session on communication, resilience and preparedness (11 June 2026).
The Committee acts to assess the UK’s preparedness for significant threats and emergencies, including vulnerabilities in national infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Professor Miles is Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Enterprise in the Faculty of Business and Law at Bournemouth University, and Professor of Crisis and Disaster Management within BU’s Disaster Management Centre.
He was invited to give oral evidence, sharing his expertise on national resilience in the UK, Europe and Africa and the need for greater public awareness on national and international risks and preparing for disaster.
Speaking alongside Nihal Newman, Director for Resilience and Cyber Security at Ofcom, Professor Miles also looked at the risks and need for preparation within communications during a disaster.
Professor Miles drew on his own research, and that of the Disaster Management Centre, in countries across the world in how we learn lessons to communicate with public during disasters and educating the public ahead of time to support them in helping to prepare themselves for any potential hazards and threats.
Lee especially referred to the highly relevant results of the Innovate-UK funded Empowering Preparedness in Everyday and Household Resilience (EM-PREPARE) project that produced a dedicated technical report in July 2025 examining awareness, preparedness and willingness of UK households to improve their resilience. He also spoke about comparisons in Africa, and in particular Sierra Leone, drawing upon the successful outcomes of the award-winning and internationally acclaimed AFRICAB (Driving African Capacity Building in Disaster Management) and EVALDIS (Evaluating Local Disaster Management in Sierra Leone) projects that he had the pleasure of directing.
He called for the government to do more to help people understand the risks they may face and support the public in being ready for them. Speaking at the Evidence Session, he said, “If we want a whole of society approach to work, then we have to deal with the question of building trust. Trust is central to action.”
For further information on the BU projects directed by Professor Miles, please see:
Disaster Management Centre launches joint report on UK household resilience | Bournemouth University
EM-PREPARE Technical Report - SafehousePro
Driving African Capacity Building in Disaster Management (AFRICAB) | Bournemouth University
Evaluating Local Disaster Management in Sierra Leone (EVALDIS) | Bournemouth University
