Google Cloud outage disrupts UK banks and court services
A disruption in Google’s London cloud region affected banking apps, websites and video links before services began recovering.
Update
Google said its cloud services had returned to full availability after a power-related incident in its London region. The outage affected services including Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC and some public-sector websites; Revolut said customers’ money and data remained safe. (Reuters)
A Google Cloud outage disrupted services used by banks, courts and other organisations across the United Kingdom on Tuesday. Google later said services were recovering after an incident in its London region.
The disruption began during the morning and affected online services connected to Google’s London-based cloud infrastructure. Banks including Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC and Revolut reported problems, while other websites and delivery services also experienced disruption.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service said its cloud video platform, used for secure links to hearings in England and Wales, was affected. The incident therefore reached beyond consumer banking and disrupted parts of public-sector digital infrastructure.
Google said its engineering teams were investigating the problem and later described the cause as a power event. The company said services were being restored, although individual organisations could take longer to return to normal.
Revolut said its customers’ money and data were safe while its services were being restored. Lloyds said its app had become operational again and that it expected other services to return shortly. These statements describe the impact reported by the organisations; they do not establish that every affected service used the same technical pathway.
The outage illustrates the dependence of widely used services on a small number of large cloud providers. The UK has introduced additional oversight for critical third-party technology providers serving the financial sector, reflecting concerns that a single disruption can affect several firms at once.
The explanation given by the cloud provider was a power event. The longer-term questions are whether affected organisations had adequate alternatives, how quickly they could switch services and whether customers received enough information during the disruption.
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One story, several perspectives
What is established
- The outage affected multiple UK services that relied on Google Cloud.
- Services began recovering during the day.
- The UK has introduced oversight arrangements for critical technology providers serving financial firms.
Left
Arguments The disruption shows that essential digital infrastructure should not be left to private providers without strong public obligations, redundancy requirements and transparent reporting.
Values Public accountability, resilience and protection of essential services.
Consequences Supporters fear that firms will otherwise minimise costs while the public bears the consequences of failures.
Centre
Arguments Cloud concentration creates a genuine operational risk, but regulation should target resilience and incident reporting rather than dictate one technical architecture. Providers and customers both need tested fallback plans.
Values Proportionality, reliability and evidence-based regulation.
Consequences A balanced approach could improve continuity without making digital services so expensive that smaller firms are excluded.
Right
Arguments The incident is a warning against over-regulation and excessive dependence on government-mandated systems. Competition between providers and customer choice should encourage better resilience.
Values Competition, innovation and limited state intervention.
Consequences Supporters fear that prescriptive rules will entrench large incumbents and raise costs without preventing every outage.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved · Priya Shah — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The outage, the affected organisations and Google’s explanation are supported by independent reporting. Broader resilience claims are presented as questions or policy context rather than as established consequences.
Editor's note
The outage and affected services are confirmed by independent reporting. The precise technical chain between Google’s incident and every affected organisation remains organisation-specific.Sources
More on this in other media
- iNews — „google cloud”
- BBC News — „google cloud”
- The Guardian — „google cloud”