Shropshire councils, schools, health services and police all hit by Microsoft outage

Shropshire councils, schools, health services and the police are amongst those impacted by a global failure of Microsoft systems.

The outage that took hold on Thursday evening (November 12) has affected a number of the tech giant’s services across the world, including email.

In Shropshire schools have reported issues accessing email, while West Mercia Police, hospitals, GP practices and councils are also understood to have been affected.

Police

In a post on social media West Mercia Police said: “Due to a global Microsoft service issue, some website online forms submissions may be affected.”

The force has advised people to hold off submitting non-urgent queries using online forms and to try again once the issues have been resolved.

It added that in an emergency people should “always call 999.”

Schools

The issue appears to have hit schools across the county, with a number posting on social media to advise parents on how to get in touch.

Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby in Madeley said: “Due to a Microsoft service outage, Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby Academy is currently unable to send or receive emails. This is a Microsoft issue affecting many organisations and is outside the school’s control.

“If you need to contact us urgently, please phone the school office on 01952 386000. Emails sent during the outage may be delayed, so if your message is time-sensitive, please call instead.”

Much Wenlock Primary School and Nursery posted: “Hi. Microsoft has a global outage on communication - to report an absence, please call rather than email.”

Ludlow CE School said: “You may have seen on the news, globally there is a significant disruption to most Microsoft services.

“We cannot, therefore, currently access any emails.”

It urged parents to call or report absence via the Arbor app, saying: “Please do not leave a message on the school phone using option 1 - this is not working due to the outage. Please wait on the line to speak to the receptionist, or alternatively use the Arbor app to report the absence.”

Councils

Shropshire Council said: “We are currently experiencing disruption to some of our systems and services due to a global Microsoft outage.

“This may affect your ability to access certain online services, contact us or recieve responses to enquiries. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding.

“Our teams are working to minimise disruption and maintain essential council services wherever possible. Our telephone lines are still working for urgent issues, including safeguarding concerns and mental health assessments.”

Telford & Wrekin Council said: “Due to the ongoing global Microsoft service outage, you may experience some intermittent issues when accessing council services online.

“You can still use the My Telford app to report any issues or access your account, and our customer contact centre is also unaffected.

“Microsoft is working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

“Thank you for your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Lawley and Overdale Parish Council said on Facebook: “We are currently experiencing IT issues with our email system, including [email protected].

“If you have an urgent issue or need to contact the parish council office, please call us on 01952 507865.”

Medical practices

A number of medical practices, including Bridgnorth and Highley, and Portcullis Surgery in Ludlow, have reported issues.

A post from Bridgnorth and Highley Medical Practice said: “Unfortunately, we are currently being affected by the ongoing global Microsoft IT issues, which are impacting a number of organisations, including government services, businesses and NHS services.

“As a result, we are currently experiencing disruption to some of our systems, including NHS emails. This may impact our ability to process requests and respond to patient enquiries as promptly as we normally would.

“Our team is working hard to manage the situation and minimise the impact on our patients.

“We will provide further updates if necessary. Thank you for your understanding and continued support.”

Microsoft has said it is seeing “early signs of stabilisation” but has not yet been able to fully restore services after the global outage left millions without access to emails and Teams around the world.

The tech giant said it was working with “urgency ” to find a fix for the issue, which has caused widespread disruption since late Thursday, with governments, banks, police forces and health services among those hit.

On its Microsoft 365 status page, the firm said: “We are seeing early signs of stabilisation, but service capacity has not yet returned to normal levels and health remains variable as traffic is carefully reintroduced.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “We are working closely with Microsoft to assess any impact on government services, with robust contingency plans in place to minimise disruption.”

Users have been unable to access many of the company’s most popular services, with thousands worldwide reporting they were unable to send and receive emails through Outlook.

Teams has also been affected for many, and the tech giant’s Copilot AI assistant and other Microsoft 365 services are also disrupted.