Microsoft outage sparks chaos across NHS, police and schools

Public services across the country have been hit by a Microsoft outage that has caused Outlook and Teams to stop working.

But the outage hasn’t just affected how office workers communicate; it's prevented the police from receiving crime reports and caused chaos in NHS hospitals and schools across the UK.

The outage has hit governments around the world, as well as having other effects on platforms such as those offered by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Experts across the security industry are stressing that this doesn’t appear to be the result of a cyber attack or any other security incident – but instead a mistake by Microsoft itself.

Here, The Independent breaks down how the outage has affected public services in the UK.

How is the Microsoft outage affecting the NHS?

The Microsoft outage is stopping 999 and 111 calls from referring patient details as they usually would, GMB Union has claimed.

The issue is creating a “massive backlog”, though emergency callouts “appear to be unaffected”.

Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “The Microsoft data outage is having a serious impact across ambulance and NHS trusts.

“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.

“Luckily, emergency and life-threatening call-outs appear to be unaffected.”

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust said its teams are not able to send or receive emails, but services are operating as usual and procedures are going ahead as planned.

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust also said in a statement on its website: “We would like to reassure you that our clinical systems are not affected, and appointments are continuing as normal.

“There is no need to change your plans – please attend your appointment as usual.”

The outage may also cause delays for patients picking up their prescriptions at pharmacies, according to the National Pharmacy Association.

NHS leaders are “working hard to minimise disruption” during the Microsoft outage.

Sir Ciarán Devane, chief executive of the NHS Alliance, also said it “appears that all clinical and operational systems” are working.

How is the outage affecting the police?

Multiple police forces across the UK have been unable to receive crime reports due to the major global Microsoft outage, and officers are urging people to call 111 or 999 rather than report crimes online.

Services including the Metropolitan Police in London are not receiving reports made through their websites, and it has made it harder for them to communicate with the public.

Online forms and email systems are among the services hit by the outage and officers are urging people to pick up the phone if they need to get in touch or report a crime.

The Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police, North Yorkshire Police, Hertfordshire Police and Dorset Police are among those warning that online submissions may be affected.

In a notice on the Metropolitan Police’s website, it said: “Due to a global Microsoft service issue, some online form submissions may be affected.

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

“In an emergency, call 999.”

In a post on Facebook, South Wales Police said: “Due to a global Microsoft service issue, we are currently experiencing technical issues with receiving reports made via our website form.

“If you need to contact police for a non-emergency, please call 101. Always call 999 in an emergency.”

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said: “We’re aware of global issues affecting Microsoft Outlook this evening, which have impacted our ability to receive online reports via the website as well as our general contact centre email address.

“Until these issues are resolved, if you need to make a non-urgent report, please call us on 101 or send a direct message to this Facebook account. In an emergency, always dial 999.”

How has the outage impacted schools?

Schools across the UK and internationally are facing widespread disruptions due to a massive global Microsoft 365 and Azure outage affecting Outlook, Teams, and email communications.

Schools in Northern Ireland have said they are unable to access email, the region’s Education Authority has said.

The body released a statement on X: “Due to a global Microsoft outage, Outlook is currently unavailable to NI schools and the Education Authority.

“Emails cannot currently be sent or received.

“Microsoft is working to resolve the issue, and further updates will be provided throughout the day.”

When will the outage be fixed?

Microsoft said in its latest update on the disruption to Microsoft 365 products that it was seeing “positive results for server stability”.

The group said on its status page: “We’re seeing positive results for server stability after applying an upstream authentication/routing configuration component patch to a portion of our infrastructure.

“We’ll continue to monitor its progress and are working to expand it to servers supporting active regions coming online.

“As of now, we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident.

“We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution.

“Once mitigated, we will provide full details of the root cause, defence-in-depth repair items, and more within a post-incident Report.”