An appeals service outage has stopped new online submissions to the Planning Inspectorate in England, with the digital service remaining paused throughout the weekend of 14 and 15 November 2026. An update issued at 17:00 on Friday 13 November says the Inspectorate intends to restore the system on Monday 16 November, but that reopening remains an expectation rather than a confirmed event.
The immediate concern is anyone approaching an appeal deadline. The Inspectorate says people affected should contact their case team for advice and that submissions with deadlines during the disruption will be accepted where required. That is a specific assurance, not a general announcement that every statutory appeal deadline has been extended or that applicants can ignore the usual rules.
This appeals service outage is not a suspension of every appeal. Scheduled site visits, hearings and inquiries are expected to proceed, and Inspectors can continue working on case papers. The Inspectorate has separately warned that email correspondence may be delayed, so applicants, councils and agents should distinguish an unavailable submission service from the progress of cases already in the system.
What the appeals service outage means for new appeals
The official Planning Inspectorate service notice, first issued on 13 November, attributes the problem to wider Microsoft disruption. Its Friday evening update confirms the decision to keep new submissions paused over the weekend while the agency works to restore the system securely and reliably. This is not merely a warning of slower page loading: the notice says new online appeal submissions cannot currently be accepted.
The organisation’s separate service announcement also says it is experiencing problems sending and receiving emails. It identifies the Manage Appeals Service as affected while stating that the national infrastructure and Crown development application websites are operating normally. The distinction is important. A temporary interruption to one online service should not be reported as a complete shutdown of the national planning system.
For a developer or planning consultant ready to submit a refusal appeal, the immediate consequence is an inability to complete the normal digital submission. An appeal form drafted offline or documents assembled in advance do not, by themselves, establish that the Inspectorate has received an appeal. This appeals service outage therefore calls for particular care wherever a deadline is close.
What happens if an appeal deadline falls during the outage?
The Inspectorate says it will accept submissions where required for appeals whose deadlines fell during the disruption. Its notice directs affected people to contact case teams, using the email address supplied through the Inspectorate’s Notify system where a case is already being handled. The exact wording matters because it describes support for affected submissions, rather than a new blanket appeal period applying to everyone.
Someone preparing a first appeal may not yet have a case officer or a case-team email address. In that situation, the official service announcement says the Inspectorate’s customer web form and telephone lines remain available for urgent enquiries. Use those established contact routes to seek instructions rather than inventing an alternative filing procedure or sending a completed appeal to an unverified address.
Keep a clear record of the applicable deadline, the time an online submission was attempted, any system error, and the correspondence asking for assistance. If the form could not be sent, say so explicitly. A screenshot may be useful evidence of a technical problem, but it does not replace an appeal being validly received under the applicable rules.
Planning Geek’s guide to planning appeal timescales sets out why identifying the correct deadline is essential: householder refusals, ordinary Section 78 refusals, advertisement appeals, certificates and enforcement routes do not all have the same time limits. This appeals service outage does not make those differences disappear.
Hearings, inquiries and existing casework continue
The Inspectorate states that site visits, hearings and inquiries will continue as normal. Inspectors retain access to existing cases and paperwork and will continue progressing work. That is reassuring for parties already preparing evidence, expert witnesses due to attend an inquiry, and councils waiting for decisions, although it does not promise that every piece of correspondence will arrive on time.
Email reliability is a separate practical issue. The Inspectorate acknowledges that case correspondence may be delayed, and its broader service announcement identifies problems with sending as well as receiving messages. Where an urgent procedural issue arises, parties should follow the Inspectorate’s current contact advice and retain a record of the communication. Do not assume that an email went through merely because it appears in a sent folder.
The appeals service outage also creates two different categories of risk. New appellants may be unable to lodge a case at all, while participants in existing proceedings may be dealing with delays in communications. Those situations should be described accurately when seeking assistance because the relevant team may need different information.
Does the interruption affect the whole United Kingdom?
The Inspectorate’s specific guidance about the paused digital appeals service states that it applies to England. Planning appeals in the devolved nations operate through different bodies and procedures, so it would be unsafe to treat this announcement as proof that their online filing systems have also stopped.
In fact, Northern Ireland’s Planning Appeals Commission stated on 13 November that its online appeal submission facility remained unaffected, although Microsoft 365 problems were disrupting email communications. It advised parties to attend scheduled proceedings and use telephone contact for urgent matters. That is a useful reminder that a shared technology incident can have very different operational consequences across planning authorities.
Scotland has also reported disruption from the Microsoft outage, but of a different kind. On 13 November the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division said it could not access emails and advised anyone facing a deadline for lodging submissions or responding to reporters to telephone 0300 244 6668 with their case reference. Its notice did not say the Scottish appeals portal was closed.
Separately, the Scottish division has announced planned case management system maintenance from 20 to 27 November inclusive, when case information will not be accessible through its portal. Service is expected to resume on 30 November, with alternative submission guidance to follow. That planned migration is not part of the Microsoft incident.
What should applicants and agents do before Monday?
First, check the live Inspectorate notice rather than assuming the service will reopen at the start of Monday. The published update says: We intend to have the service back up and running safely on Monday 16 November.
It promises a further update when that happens, not a fixed restoration time or a guarantee that the platform will be available at midnight.
Second, work through the appeal documents while the portal is unavailable. The application decision, relevant plans, ownership details and supporting material still need to be ready, and the appropriate procedure must be identified before submission. Planning Geek’s planning appeals guide explains the available routes and the substantial procedural changes affecting relevant applications made from 1 April 2026.
Third, if a deadline is affected, ask the Inspectorate directly how it wants that particular submission handled. Record the response and follow it. This is especially important where there are multiple appeals, different statutory grounds or an enforcement-related date that may require special care.
Finally, once online access returns, verify that a submission has actually completed and retain the acknowledgement and supporting records. The end of an appeals service outage is not the same thing as evidence that a particular appeal was successfully filed. If the system remains unavailable on Monday, the Inspectorate’s own notice is the appropriate place to check for further instructions.
Why the weekend disruption matters
Digital appeals are now the normal route for many planning disputes in England. The service is more than an administrative convenience: it is the point at which an appellant needs to deliver the form and essential supporting information within the time allowed. When that gateway is unavailable, the effect may be immediate for someone with an expiring appeal period even if all hearings and inspections continue elsewhere in the organisation.
The sensible response is neither panic nor complacency. The Inspectorate has acknowledged the problem, provided contact routes and indicated how it will support deadlines affected by the incident. Applicants and agents still need to establish their own dates, keep evidence of attempted contact and act on the latest official guidance. The appeals service outage will remain a live issue until the Inspectorate confirms that new submissions can resume.
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