Councils and public services hit by global Microsoft outage

A worldwide Microsoft outage has disrupted millions of users and is now hitting the operations of dozens of London institutions.

Services including Teams, Outlook, and Copilot have all been impacted by the outage, with the tech giant now scrambling to find a resolution.

The outage was first reported at around 6pm on Thursday night, but more than 12 hours later, a fix has not yet been found.

Microsoft said its attempts to fix the issue are not “taking as expected”, but confirmed that the incident was not caused by a cyber-security attack.

In London, several services and institutions have all been hit by the outage, including emergency services, schools, and sectors of government.

An error message is shown when trying to access Microsoft's Outlook

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A heatmap on Downdetector shows that London is the region with the highest number of reported outages since the problem first emerged on Thursday evening.

Microsoft said in its latest update that it is seeing "early signs of stabilisation", though services are not yet back up to normal.

Experts have criticised the tech giant for struggling to resolve the issue - which is understood to be caused by “overloaded servers.”

Prof Awais Rashid, Professor of Cyber Security, University of Bristol, called it “concerning” that Microsoft had not yet found a fix for the outage, explaining that organisations fundamentally rely on the tech giant’s services.

He said: “Organisations increasingly rely on third party services such as Office 365. And these services play a critical role in day to day functioning of organisations.

“Whether a cyber security incident or not, their resilience is important to ensure businesses large and small can continue their daily operations.

“What is concerning is not only that an overload issue occurred but, more critically, that Microsoft does not seem to fully understand the underlying cause and apply an effective fix.

All the London institutions affected by the Microsoft outage

Microsoft is scrambling to find new ways to restore services

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London Fire Brigade

The Brigade confirmed that while some services are facing disruption, its operational response and mobilisation is not impacted and is running as normal.

LFB Assistant Commissioner Jamie Jenkins said: "Like everyone we are experiecing the impacts of the global outage.

"But our operational response and mobilisation is not impacted and running as normal."

The London Fire Brigade reported disruption on some services

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Metropolitan Police

The Met Police has confirmed it is one of the forces facing disruption due to the global Microsoft outage.

The force has advised that some online form submissions may be affected.

It said: “If your report is time-critical but not an emergency, please call 101.

“In an emergency, call 999.”

Ambulance

The GMB union has said the Microsoft outage is impacting ambulances across the UK.

Rachel Harrison, the union's national secretary, says: “Those who work in 111 and 999 services are unable to refer patient details in the normal way which is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos."

She added that emergency and life-threatening call outs are currently unaffected.

It is unclear if the London Ambulance Service is currently affected.

The Standard has contacted London Ambulance Service for more details.

Supreme Court

The chaos has also extended to the UK’s judicial system.

The Supreme Court confirmed in a post on X that it was unable to receive emails.

It advised that while its portal and contact forms were still working, email services were affected.

The Supreme Court confirmed its services were impacted by the outage

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Parliament

MPs are struggling to access parliamentary accounts amid the outage, according to the BBC.

A parliamentary spokesperson said: “We are aware of the global issue affecting Microsoft email services, which is impacting users of the parliamentary network. We are working with Microsoft to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

"Alternative communication arrangements are in place, allowing today’s business to continue.”

NHS

The NHS is facing major issues accessing Microsoft services

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The NHS is facing major issues accessing Microsoft services on Friday morning.

The Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust issued a warning to patients, writing: “Patients: please call your usual CNWL service rather than emailing until further notice. Emails may not be received.

“We apologise for any inconvenience.”

Councils

London councils are also facing disruption as a result of the Microsoft outage.

Hounslow Council in west London said in a service update that its services had been impacted, explaining that “some of our services may be disrupted today and staff may take longer to respond back to residents.”

Southwark Council also confirmed it was affected by the outage and would be “monitoring” the situation. Emails to and from the council are expected to be impacted.

Schools

Schools in London and across the UK have been impacted by the Microsoft outage.

As reported by the Guardian, one London school said emails would be delayed until the issue with Outlook is resolved and that parents should phone, rather than email, if their child would be absent.

A second London school said it had limited or no access to Outlook and also told parents to email.

Mill Hill County School in north London reported that due to the outage, staff were “unable to access emails.”

It advised parents and pupils to call through to the school reception.