Held emergency meeting

UK government held emergency meeting on global outage, PA media reports

From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite in London

The UK government held an emergency COBR meeting to discuss the global tech outage, Downing Street said Friday, according to PA media. 

“We recognise the impact this is having on services and the Government is working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue, which is affecting services not only across the UK but also globally,” a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters on Friday, PA reported.

The spokesperson added that she is not aware of any government business being hit by the outage.

Asked why British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not chair the meeting of the committee, the spokesperson said the Prime Minister “has had bilaterals with President Zelensky and Cabinet this morning, but all ministers including the Prime Minister are being kept informed with the latest.”

Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) meetings bring together a committee of government department representatives to discuss the nation’s emergency response to crises.