What happened
The Insolvency Service, an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade, said on 13 November 2026 that it was experiencing problems sending and receiving emails because of a global Microsoft outage. The agency published the notice on GOV.UK and updated it the same day.
By 4.30pm, the Insolvency Service said the issues “appear to be easing, although some disruption may continue in the short term,” and confirmed it could now be contacted as usual.
Who is affected
The notice does not specify which Microsoft service was affected beyond describing it as a “global Microsoft outage” and, in the page’s update log, a “Microsoft 365 outage.” No details are given on the scale of the outage, how many other organisations were hit, or the root cause.
For UK readers, the practical effect is narrow but concrete: anyone trying to email the Insolvency Service on 13 November, including businesses, insolvency practitioners, creditors or members of the public dealing with the agency’s casework, may have faced delays getting through or receiving replies. The agency has not said whether phone lines, online forms or other digital services were affected, only that email was disrupted.
What the document actually says
The GOV.UK page is a short service-status notice rather than an incident report. It gives no timeline for when the outage began, no explanation of its cause, and no information on whether any emails were lost rather than simply delayed. It does not name Microsoft as having issued its own statement, nor does it link to any wider advisory. The entire substantive content is two short paragraphs: an initial alert and a same-day update saying things were improving.
What to watch next
Readers should check the GOV.UK page directly, as the Insolvency Service says it will log further updates there if problems persist. The notice gives no indication of compensation, backlog clearance timelines or further communication to affected users, so anyone with an urgent or time-sensitive insolvency matter who could not get through by email on 13 November may want to follow up directly to confirm their correspondence was received. Daily Tech Times will update this story if the Insolvency Service, Microsoft or the Department for Business and Trade provide further detail on the scope or cause of the outage.