Key services across the UK including the NHS, GPs, police and pharmacies have been affected by a global Microsoft outage.

NHS England said patients should still attend appointments unless told otherwise, while several large police forces are urging the public to call if they want to report a crime. Schools have also been affected by the outage.

Microsoft said services were now gradually being restored globally after a problem caused by a higher-than-usual stress on its servers, but users could still experience disruption.

The government said it was working closely with the firm to assess any impact on its services, while local authorities warned that some council services were being affected.

The full extent of the impact of the outage - which is affecting Outlook, Teams and Copilot - and the time it will take to restore the systems remains unclear hours after users first reported issues.

Some 430 million people use the online tools worldwide.

The chief executive of the NHS Alliance, which represents the healcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the outage was affecting some services including emails.

NHS trusts in England were enacting measures to minimise disruption to critical services, a spokesperson said.

Patients have been told to continue to use 999 in an emergency and otherwise contact 111, 111 online or their local pharmacy.

Some GP surgeries have urged patients not to submit messages via their website while the problem remains. Practices in Hampshire and Shropshire have told patients to phone them or come into the surgery if they have an urgent need.

Microsoft scrambles to solve global outage affecting Outlook and Teams but says fixes not going 'as expected'

A National Pharmacy Association spokesperson said the outage was affecting pharmacies' ability to communicate with GP practices and some patients, so "waits may be longer than normal and there may be delays to some prescriptions".

The overall impact on health services remains unclear. Much of the NHS calendar is linked to diaries using the Microsoft system, but workflow practices differ between hospitals and trusts.

There are anecdotal reports of c-sections being cancelled and hospitals only accepting urgent referrals - though the impact on elective treatments has yet to be confirmed.

The GMB union's national secretary Rachel Harrison said the outage was having a "serious impact" on ambulance and NHS trusts.

"Those who work in 111 and 999 services are unable to refer patient details in the normal way which is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos," she said, though "emergency and life-threatening call outs appear to be unaffected".

Meanwhile, police forces in England and Wales - including the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police and Police Scotland - have said online forms may be affected. They are urging people to call them about any time-critical by non-emergency matters.

Downing Street said it was looking to get a "full picture" of the the extent of the outage's effect on government services.

In England, the Local Government Association warned that some services may be disrupted but plans were in place to ensure people "continue to receive the support they need".

Because the outage affects key organisational and communication platforms that are integrated, many other workplaces have been affected.

That has included schools, where teachers, office staff and parents have all had to navigate being unable to access key resources on calendars, emails and internal cloud servers.

One head teacher at a primary school near Newcastle said safeguarding systems had also been affected, meaning staff were having to report concerns in person instead of logging them, while another in Cheshire said his had been forced to delay sending out termly school reports.

Universities have also suffered disruption to online systems, including tools used to submit assignments.

Some, like the University of Portsmouth and University of Aberdeen, have extended deadlines or waived late submission penalties.

Royal Mail said some of its online services were unavailable and email notifications about deliveries may be impacted, but post was still being collected and delivered as normal

MPs have been unable to access their parliamentary accounts. A spokesperson said alternative arrangements were in place

The Scottish government has activated its "resilience operations" as it assesses the impact of the outage

MSPs also confirmed that Holyrood's emails systems were down, meaning they were unable to communicate with constituents or access urgent casework

Some businesses are reverting to using paper or moving to different communication platforms like WhatsApp.

Microsoft and cyber-security experts have ruled out a cyber-attack being the cause of the outage.

The tech firm said a large number of its servers had become "unexpectedly unavailable", meaning traffic was sent to the servers that remained online, putting them under strain.

"Just like on a motorway, when you block one lane, you have to put all of the excess traffic through just, say, one or two lanes," Jake Moore, a cyber-security adviser at ESET, explained.

"Everything goes and backs up. It slows down, and that's what we're seeing here."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that this incident should "hammer home" the need for contingency communication networks that are "independent of others".

"Unfortunately, we just put so much emphasis on just a few providers - so when one big one like this goes down, the knock-on effects are just huge."

His sentiment was echoed by Nicky Choo, who said his cyber-security firm Mimecast used Microsoft tools but had built-in alternatives to prevent disruption.

Some workplaces are reverting to using paper or moving to alternate communication platforms like WhatsApp to keep their businesses ticking over.

But others have been left struggling without the Microsoft tools.

Caroline Wade, who runs her own PR agency in Kent, told the BBC that the outage had caused her "huge disruption" as she was unable to send pitches and invoices.

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Georgia Young, from Staffordshire, was due to complete a house purchase today with her partner but said it had now been delayed.

"We've waited eight months to get to this point, it seem like it's out of reach again," she said.

Dave Walker said the outage was threatening his fledgling bakery and wine bar's online pre-Christmas sales, while Stirlingshire resident Lewis Bowles said he was unable to access his tickets for a Sunday rugby match.

Have you or your business been affected by the outage?