Microsoft outage disrupts services across north Essex

Millions of people were left without access to Outlook emails and Microsoft Teams from Thursday until Friday afternoon.

Councils - including Colchester and Tendring - schools and numerous businesses were among those affected.

Services relying on Microsoft 365 faced problems sending and receiving messages, while some online systems were also unavailable.

Microsoft said its email services were approaching normal levels as it continued to resolve the major global outage.

The company said: “We’re continuing to see improvements in service availability, with email queues significantly reduced and approaching normal levels."

A phone screening showing Microsoft Teams (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

Colchester Council said some internal systems, including email and online forms, were temporarily unavailable during the outage.

A spokesperson said: “While this caused some disruption and increased demand on our phone lines, all council services remained open and staff worked hard to minimise the impact on residents and businesses.”

A spokesperson for Tendring District Council said: "A global Microsoft outage affected some services including emails and MyTendring (online self-service forms).

"If you need to contact the Council in an emergency, you can call our Switchboard on 01255 686868."

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, also warned patients about possible communication problems.

Esneft boss - Mike Meers (Image: ESNEFT)

Mike Meers, the trust’s managing director, said: “We are aware of an ongoing global service issue affecting Microsoft 365 services, which is not specific to our trust.

As a result, you may experience delays or difficulties sending emails to, or receiving emails from, our services and clinical teams.”

Patients were told to contact the relevant service or the main switchboard by telephone if they had an urgent clinical query or needed to reach a department about an imminent appointment.

The trust advised patients to continue attending appointments unless told otherwise. It said people needing immediate medical help should use 111, through the NHS app, online or by phone, and call 999 in an emergency.

St Mary’s School, in Colchester, reported disruption to its email services.

Not working - the Microsoft global outage, displayed on a laptop screen (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

The school said on Facebook: “Due to the current Microsoft service outage, St Mary’s is experiencing disruption to its email services.

“Our parent app remains available and unaffected, so current parents can continue to communicate with us through this channel.”

By Friday afternoon, Microsoft reported improved service availability, although some users could still face intermittent access or delayed emails while recovery continued.