Global Microsoft Outage Disrupts Liverpool Council and Local Services

A widespread Microsoft outage has caused significant operational disruption across Liverpool and the wider north-west of England, impacting local government, healthcare, and emergency communication channels. The technical fault, which began on Thursday and was attributed by Microsoft to higher-than-usual stress on its servers, affected key platforms including Outlook, Teams, and Copilot. Liverpool City Council confirmed that its officers were unable to respond to emails and warned residents that other municipal services could experience delays while engineers worked to restore normal connectivity. Merseyside Police also reported issues with their online reporting forms and live chat services, advising members of the public to call 101 for time-critical non-emergency matters. Local healthcare was similarly strained, as the outage limited the ability of pharmacies across Merseyside to communicate with GP practices, prompting the UK National Pharmacy Association to warn patients of longer waits for prescriptions. House buyers facing Friday completion dates also expressed concern over delayed legal communications. However, Liverpool John Lennon Airport confirmed that its operational systems remained completely unaffected, maintaining business as usual for passengers despite the regional tech troubles.