Hospitals, GP surgeries, police forces, and property agents across the UK were impacted by a global Microsoft outage on Friday, 13 November 2026. The disruption to email and other IT facilities began in the early hours for some, becoming widely apparent by approximately 6am.
The NHS experienced "serious" and "widespread" disruption, with hundreds of hospitals, GP surgeries, and community health services affected. The NHS.net Connect system, used by over 1 million staff for emails, meetings, and file access, is powered by Microsoft, leading to difficulties logging in, performing basic duties, and sending patient data. Some staff resorted to using paper records, and urgent messages about referrals for serious conditions were reportedly unable to be sent. Patients were advised to attend appointments unless told otherwise and to continue using 999 for emergencies, though some operations and appointments were cancelled.
The outage also affected the UK court system, from magistrates' courts to the supreme court, causing cancellations and delays to cases. Judge Maurice Greene at Minshull Street crown court sent jurors home, noting the reliance of many institutions on Microsoft 365. Civil court cases, including in family courts, saw planned judgments delayed until Monday as they are typically sent remotely via email.
For policing, the main impact was on online crime reporting services and internal email systems. Emergency 999 calls were unaffected, and frontline services remained operational. Durham Constabulary anticipated a potential backlog of non-urgent demand due to the loss of email. The Metropolitan Police also reported officers and staff were unable to access emails via Outlook, but services were starting to resume by Friday afternoon.