Microsoft outage disrupts government services across Europe

A global outage affecting Microsoft services disrupted government institutions, public administrations and other public services across several European countries on Friday.

In Norway, several ministries have reported problems accessing Microsoft services, including email, since Thursday evening.

The Ministry of Digitalization and Public Administration told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that the ministry's Digitization Organization (DIO) had contacted Microsoft, which said it was working to resolve the issue.

Norwegian police also experienced issues with Microsoft Teams, particularly when making calls or joining meetings, as well as disruptions to Microsoft Copilot.

However, the disruptions did not affect central police systems or operational capabilities, the Police Directorate said.

The Norwegian Parliament was also affected, with all lawmakers reportedly losing access to email services.

In Denmark, the parliament also reported operational problems with its email services, while other systems continue to function normally.

Between 80 and 90 Danish municipalities were reportedly affected by the outage, according to broadcaster DR, which cited local sources.

In the UK, millions of people have been affected as the outage has had a “serious impact” on the country’s National Health Service (NHS).

A number of official government websites also reported that they could not currently receive emails because of a global Microsoft outage.

“Ofsted cannot currently receive emails because of a global Microsoft outage. Please do not send emails to Ofsted at this time,” said the country’s office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.