Massive Cloud Failure Exposes Government’s Reliance on Amazon Web Services
Just four months after Prime Minister Keir Starmer celebrated Amazon’s £40 billion investment pledge as proof that his “plan for change is working,” the tech giant was left reeling from a global Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that disrupted thousands of businesses and government systems worldwide.
The incident, which struck on Monday, brought renewed attention to the UK government’s deep dependence on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure. Data compiled for The Guardian by procurement intelligence firm Tussell revealed that AWS has secured 189 UK government contracts worth £1.7 billion since 2016, invoicing around £1.4 billion to date.
Currently, 35 public sector authorities use AWS services under 41 contracts totaling £1.1 billion, including major departments such as the Home Office, HMRC, Defra, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Department for Work and Pensions.
‘Significant Exposure’ to a Single Cloud Provider
Tim Wright, technology partner at the law firm Fladgate, described the situation as “a very significant exposure,” calling it ironic given how UK financial regulators have long warned against concentration risks in cloud services.
“Until significant diversification or sovereign cloud adoption occurs, the government’s stance shows an uncomfortable contradiction with the resilience principles regulators have advocated,” Wright said.
The House of Commons Treasury Committee has since written to Economic Secretary Lucy Rigby asking why Amazon has not yet been designated a “critical third party” to the UK’s financial system—a move that would subject AWS to direct regulatory oversight. Committee chair Meg Hillier noted that AWS had previously told MPs that its systems offered “multiple layers of protection” to ensure resilience.
Global Outage Disrupts Businesses and Services
The AWS outage was one of the most severe in recent years, affecting more than 2,000 companies worldwide, according to monitoring site Downdetector. There were 8.1 million reports of disruptions globally, including 1.9 million from the United States, 1 million from the UK, and 418,000 from Australia.
Among UK agencies, HMRC confirmed it had been affected, with users unable to access online tax services. “Customers are having problems accessing our online services,” the agency said in a statement, urging people to try again later as phone lines became overwhelmed.
By Monday evening, Amazon said that all services had “returned to normal operations,” but the outage reignited debate over the nation’s heavy reliance on a single U.S. tech provider for critical infrastructure.
Union Backlash Over Public Contracts
Beyond cloud reliability, Amazon’s labor practices also came under fire. The GMB union criticized the government’s willingness to award nearly £2 billion in public contracts to a company it accuses of mistreating workers.
“Amazon has a truly terrible track record on treating workers fairly,” said Andy Prendergast, GMB’s national secretary. “Staff are treated like robots, worked until they drop, and were only paid fairly after six months of strike action. For it to pocket billions in public money is a disgrace.”
An Amazon spokesperson said the “vast majority” of ambulance callouts at its warehouses were not work-related, while AWS declined to comment on the outage or the government’s reliance on its systems.
The episode has sparked new questions about whether the UK can afford to leave so much of its digital and operational infrastructure in the hands of one private company—especially one whose global dominance, critics argue, now poses both an economic and systemic risk.