Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether (a) Government services and (b) critical national infrastructure faced disruption as a result of the Microsoft Azure outage on Wednesday 29 October 2025; and what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the economy of that service outage.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is leading Government’s response to the Microsoft Azure outage that took place on Wednesday 29 October 2025. We understand that all Azure services were restored on Wednesday evening, and DSIT is in contact with Microsoft to understand how such events can be mitigated in the future.
DSIT has identified disruption to online Government services across several departments, which were restored within hours of the incident.
We are not aware of any major disruption arising from this event affecting Critical National Infrastructure but will continue to work with relevant operators to understand the full impact.
The outage affected a wide range of organisations across all sectors and it will take some time to fully understand the scale of the economic impact.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what government services faced disruption as a result of the Amazon Web Services outage on Monday 20 October; and what assessment her Department plans to make of the cost to the economy of that service outage.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Many government departments use AWS services, and we are aware that the Home Office, DVLA, DWP and HMRC all experienced impacts as a result of the outage on Monday 20 October.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is working with both departments and AWS to better understand the impacts, and will use this to inform future work on government digital resilience.
The cost of the outage is not yet known.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with Research England on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with Innovate UK on their approach to the (a) coding of and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects following the publication of the Sullivan report in July 2024.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Natural Environment Research Council on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Science and Technology Facilities Council on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Government Digital Service on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Medical Research Council on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council on their approach to the (a) coding and (b) processing of data relating to (i) biological sex and (ii) gender identity in research projects in the context of the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, published on 19 March 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark
No direct discussions have taken place on these matters. The review has been shared with all departments, and is available for all arms-length bodies and institutions to consider in light of ongoing work in this area.