Microsoft Outage Causes Major Disruption to NHS, Police, Courts and Businesses Worldwide

Microsoft's global service disruption has affected essential services across the UK and more than 70 countries, with NHS organisations, police forces, local councils, courts, retailers and transport users reporting problems as the company works to restore its systems.

The outage, which began on Thursday, 12 November 2026, has affected Outlook, Exchange Online, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services. Millions of people have experienced difficulties accessing email, workplace applications and online services. Microsoft has reported signs of recovery, but warned that some users could continue to face intermittent disruption.

The disruption has caused concern across the UK's National Health Service, particularly because some healthcare workers have been unable to access normal communication and referral systems.

GP practices using the Rapid Health online consultation system have reported access problems. Patients have been advised to contact their GP reception by telephone if they need help with urgent medical concerns.

Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB union, said the outage was having a serious impact across ambulance and NHS trusts. She warned that staff working in NHS 111 services were unable to refer patient details through normal channels, creating a substantial backlog and raising concerns about further disruption.

Later reports also indicated that some 999-related referral and information processes were experiencing difficulties. However, life-threatening emergency call-outs were reported to remain unaffected. The distinction is important: problems with the transfer of patient information do not necessarily mean emergency telephone lines or ambulance responses have stopped operating.

NHS organisations have issued different local updates. NHS Fife, for example, said Outlook access was affected for some staff, while core Teams messaging remained largely available. It reported no major disruption to clinical areas at the time of its update.

Police and local authority services have also been affected. Police Scotland reported problems receiving emails and warned that its online contact forms could be disrupted. The force advised members of the public to use 999 for emergencies and 101 for non-emergency matters.

Several Scottish councils, including Edinburgh, East Lothian and Scottish Borders, reported difficulties with email and some online contact forms. Residents were advised to telephone council offices or schools when they needed to make urgent contact.

The disruption has highlighted how much routine public administration depends on email and cloud-based services. Even where telephone services remain operational, staff may face delays dealing with requests that would normally be processed electronically.

Rail passengers warned about missing tickets and travel updates

National Rail has warned passengers that people using Microsoft Outlook may not receive tickets or journey notifications sent by email.

Travellers have been advised to log in to the website or app through which they purchased their tickets and download them before setting off. Those who booked as guests and cannot retrieve their tickets should contact the retailer directly.

Passengers who still cannot access their tickets are encouraged to speak to station or onboard staff. National Rail has also advised customers to consider receiving travel alerts through text messages or WhatsApp instead of email while the disruption continues.

Airports including Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted were reported to be operating without direct disruption in the updates provided by Sky News. However, the wider problems with business communications have affected other travel-related organisations.

The outage has also caused delays in the justice system. Jurors at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court were sent home early after being told that problems with Microsoft 365 had caused delays involving the court and connected institutions.

The trial concerns nine men accused of various offences connected with the alleged drugging and rape of a woman by her husband. Judge Maurice Greene told jurors that many institutions relied on Microsoft services and acknowledged the disruption to proceedings.

Retailers are also concerned about the potential consequences if email services remain unreliable. The British Retail Consortium warned that customs checks and the paperwork needed to move goods between locations rely heavily on email.

The organisation said border checks involving Northern Ireland could be particularly affected because relevant processes depend on Outlook. Although shops were not expected to experience immediate shortages, prolonged disruption could delay the movement and clearance of fresh goods, potentially affecting supplies over the weekend.

The incident has reached far beyond the UK. Reports of problems have emerged across Asia, Europe, North America and other regions.

Government departments in Japan warned that emails sent to them might not have been received correctly. Some ministries asked people with urgent enquiries to telephone instead. Organisations in Singapore, Australia and other countries also acknowledged disruption to their systems.

In the United States, the House of Representatives reported that its users were affected. Australian government agencies, including police and security organisations, also experienced problems. Technology companies OpenAI and Anthropic reported issues involving their Microsoft 365 connectors.

Downdetector, which collects user reports of service problems, recorded approximately 130,000 reports of Outlook issues at the peak of the disruption. Reports were also made about Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and OneDrive.

Microsoft has described the incident as an infrastructure and service-recovery problem. Its updates indicate that a large number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable, shifting additional demand onto the remaining infrastructure.

The company has also identified problems involving a process on affected servers responsible for establishing secure connections. According to its technical updates, that process became overwhelmed, preventing some servers from handling requests properly.

Microsoft has been working to increase capacity, rebuild or restart affected servers, adjust network configurations and gradually restore traffic. However, some servers that initially returned to service became unresponsive again when traffic was redirected towards them.

The company has reported positive results after applying a configuration patch to part of its infrastructure. It has also said recovery actions in the Asia-Pacific region have been completed, with improvements in mailbox access and delayed email processing.

Microsoft extended the email delivery timeout period to 48 hours to give delayed messages more time to reach their destinations. This does not guarantee that every email sent during the outage will be delivered, and users may still need to check whether important messages have reached the intended recipients.

The company has said it has no indication that malicious or cyber activity caused the incident. A complete technical explanation and final assessment of the outage have not yet been published.

The disruption has renewed concerns about the dependence of businesses and public institutions on a small number of major technology providers.

Microsoft said more than 430 million people used its Microsoft 365 applications, illustrating the scale of the potential impact when a central service experiences a major failure.

Technology experts have warned that organisations need alternative communication arrangements for essential operations. These could include telephone contact systems, backup procedures and ways to access critical information when cloud-based services are unavailable.

Although Microsoft has reported progress, restoring access is only part of the challenge. Organisations must also deal with delayed emails, outstanding requests, disrupted appointments and administrative backlogs.

The full operational and financial impact may become clearer after services have stabilised. Daily Dazzling Dawn will continue to monitor developments as Microsoft works to restore normal operations worldwide.