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.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, case reference BS35944, dated (a) 15 July 2025 and (b) 8 September 2025 .

Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government is committed to transparency and accountability, including through clear and timely responses to correspondence. I can confirm that your letter to the Minister for the Cabinet Office dated 15 July, and subsequent email 8 September, have been passed to me as the Minister responsible for this policy, and I have replied to your letter. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2025 to Question 75683 on Neurodiversity: Children, what discussions he has had with NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board on the steps they are taking to ensure that assessment pathways for neurodevelopment disorders in children meet National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has had no such discussion with the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines are developed by experts based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with stakeholders. They are not mandatory, but National Health Service commissioners are expected to take them fully into account in designing services to meet the needs of their local populations.

The NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB advises that additional investment has been secured by the local system to increase capacity within the assessment pathway, and it is working to increase the earlier support available. The ICB is also continuing delivery of the Partnerships for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme, which brings together ICBs, local authorities, and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodivergent children and their families.