Minister: Majority of sectors have mostly recovered following global IT outage

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Disruption caused by a global IT outage is expected to continue for “a couple of days” but the majority of sectors have “mostly recovered”, according to the Government. Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves said the UK transport system is “running normally” and systems are back online for GPs, although NHS England and pharmacies have warned of “delays” and services being “slower than usual”. Making a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Reeves said “large parts” of the local UK healthcare system lost access to test results and appointment information, which affected mostly GP services. “However, as IT systems are complex, we can expect that minor disruption will continue in some areas while systems continue to recover, but my officials expect these to be resolved in the next couple of days.” Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Oliver Dowden asked if the Government will consider “mandatory cyber security targets” for the UK public sector, adding: “Is the Government considering obligations to ensure that infrastructure is designed to be resilient against common cause problems, such as this one?” Nick Kaye, chairman of the association which represents independent community pharmacies in the UK, said: “As pharmacists recover from last week’s IT outage and catch up on the backlog of prescriptions, we expect service in some community pharmacies to be slower than usual today.