In response to parliamentary queries prompted by recent major incidents, ministers at two of government’s largest departments have revealed contingency plans to ensure ongoing operations, irrespective of vendors’ tech issues
In light of two of the world’s biggest tech vendors suffering recent significant outages, HM Revenue and Customs has indicated that “the majority of [its] core systems” are designed to remain up and running during a tech shutdown.
Following the difficulties experienced last week by Amazon Web Services – which an ongoing government probe has found “affected a number of suppliers and departments” across Whitehall – Microsoft services were also struck down by an outage this week. The issues impacted users of Microsoft 365 and Azure, with affected UK organisations reported to include Heathrow Airport and NatWest.
Shortly after the AWS failures last week, Conservative MP John Hayes asked HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions about provisions made to ensure the organisations could “continue to run critical services in the event of a major internet outage”.
In response, exchequer secretary to the Treasury Daniel Tomlinson said that “HMRC services are designed with resilience and continuity in mind” – and that many of the department’s most important internal tech platforms could maintain operations, even in the midst of a major connectivity collapse.
“While some services rely on internet connectivity – for example, digital access for citizens and connections to certain software-as-a-service platforms – the majority of HMRC’s core systems will continue to operate during an internet outage,” the minister said. “Internal connectivity between HMRC sites and hosted services is maintained through private, dedicated links that do not depend on the public internet. This ensures that critical processing and internal operations can continue without interruption.”
Tomlinson added that, even for those public services that are dependent on external connections, contingency measures are in place to support ongoing provision.
“For citizen-facing services that require internet access, HMRC has established business continuity plans,” he said. “These include alternative communication channels, prioritisation of essential services, and manual fallback processes where appropriate, to minimise disruption and maintain service availability.”
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At the DWP, meanwhile, transformation minister Andrew Western claimed that the department also has back-up plans intended to allow citizens to continue to access support during tech outages.
“The DWP maintains measures to ensure access to essential services remains available during disruptions to internet connectivity,” Western said. “The department has contingency plans designed to manage such situations. These plans provide for continuity of service and offer support through alternative methods if digital platforms are temporarily inaccessible. The DWP regularly reviews and updates its business continuity procedures to reduce disruption and maintain claimant and service user access, regardless of technical issues.”
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is leading the government’s response to the AWS outage – a process which departmental minister Ian Murray this week said “will take some time to fully understand the scale of the impact” on government and the UK more broadly.
He added: “DSIT will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which will set out a clear approach for the government and the wider public sector to manage cybersecurity and resilience incidents.”
A report published earlier this year by the Competition and Markets Authority warned about the effect of AWS and Microsoft’s dominance of the UK cloud landscape. Between them, the two firms reportedly account for about 80% of the market.
For its part, DSIT believes that “up to 60% of the government estate is currently hosted on cloud platforms, mostly using AWS, Microsoft and Google”, according to Murray – although he added that “more granular data on the split between” the trio is not currently available.
