Microsoft outage: Yorkshire councils and police hit

Councils, police forces and hospitals across Yorkshire have been affected as part of a global Microsoft outage which has been going on for almost a day.

Tools including Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot have all been affected, causing disruption for tens of thousands of people.

City of York Council, Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust all said they were among the organisations affected.

A spokesperson for NHS England said some local services had moved to using other kinds of IT systems or paper records where possible.

An NHS spokesperson said: "With the global Microsoft issue inevitably having a disruptive impact for staff, local NHS services are enacting long-standing measures to manage IT outages and ensure critical services and appointments can continue for patients today."

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust said it was experiencing some issues with IT systems due to the global Microsoft issue.

A trust spokesperson said: "Patients should continue to attend for appointments and access urgent care services if needed."

However, bosses at hospitals in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Rotherham all reassured patients that appointments were going ahead as planned and that clinical systems had not been affected.

Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service shared on social media that appointments would be going ahead over the phone, and asked anyone wanting to get in touch with the service for support to call or visit their website.

For urgent support, staff urged people to call NHS 111, or charities including the Samaritans on 116 123.

City of York Council, North Yorkshire Council, Bradford Council, Leeds City Council and Sheffield City Council all urged residents to contact them by telephone for any urgent inquiries.

A City of York Council spokesperson said: "Our email systems are being affected by the global Microsoft Outlook outage.

"Our online forms and services are still available. If you need urgent assistance please contact us by telephone."

South Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police all confirmed they had been affected.

Meanwhile, several courts – including Leeds Magistrates' Court and Sheffield Crown Court - have experienced delays.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said it was seeing "encouraging recovery", but "some users may still experience intermittent issues".

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