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Written question asked by Ben Spencer (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 29 October 2025 (named day). It was answered by Ian Murray (Labour) on Wednesday, 29 October 2025 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.


Amazon Web Services: Outages

Question

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.

Answer

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.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
84777
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Economic situation Electronic government Amazon Web Services Outages
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk