People are being urged to carry emergency cash after banking apps crashed during a system failure at a Google data centre in London.

Several banking apps stopped working on Tuesday morning because of problems with Google Cloud, which is relied on by a number of major financial organisations.

Banks including Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Revolut were affected. Customers complained of being left without access to their money and unable to buy food and fuel.

NHS England was also disrupted, with users of its app temporarily blocked from viewing or amending appointments.

Video links used in court hearings, known as the cloud video platform, also failed. It temporarily disrupted the trial of Russell Brand, but officials decided to continue proceedings despite a videolink failing.

Lawyers said the incident would “hamper” efforts to clear the already backed-up courts and result in cases that may have already been delayed being postponed again, potentially for up to a year.

We're aware of an issue affecting Cloud Video Platform (CVP), used for some remote hearings.

We're working with our technology partners to restore service. If you're having difficulty joining a hearing, please contact the court or tribunal dealing with your case. — HM Courts and Tribunals Service (@HMCTSgovuk) October 20, 2026 Organisations including Royal Mail, DPD and Rightmove, as well as some smaller ticketing websites, were reportedly affected.

Lord Harris of Haringey, the chairman of the national preparedness commission, said it was a “reminder that systems can fail, whether because of an outage, or indeed, an attack from a hostile state”.

He said: “Whatever the cause on this occasion, it is important that retailers continue to accept cash – not all of them do – and it makes sense for all of us to carry a certain amount of cash, if we can do so, just in case.

“Many other countries advise their citizens to have some modest supplies of cash for emergency use. We should do the same.”Google blamed the “outage” on a “power event” and said it was investigated. The company insisted that most of the issues had been resolved by the end of the afternoon with only a small number of its customers still experiencing problems.

‘Common sense’ to carry cash There was no suggestion on Tuesday that the issues had been the result of hackers deliberately causing disruption. However, it raised questions about resilience in an increasingly digital world.

Baroness Helic, of the national resilience committee, said carrying cash was “common sense” and “an important part of being resilient”.

She said: “In a world built around just-in-time services and the expectation that everything will always be available at the touch of a button, we should not assume that a single way of doing things will always be enough.”A similar internet crash took place exactly a year ago, when more than 1,000 websites and apps, including those of Lloyds Bank and Snapchat, were knocked offline.

The problem was caused by a bug affecting Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division run by Amazon, on which thousands of websites rely. Amazon blamed the internet crash on an issue that prevented websites and apps from finding the data they had stored in the cloud computing system.

Jake Moore, the global cybersecurity adviser at ESET, a cybersecurity company, said it highlighted “how much dependence we put on a handful of technology giants to keep our digital lives running”.

He said: “With only a small number of major cloud providers to choose from, the knock-on effects can be catastrophic if something goes wrong and can leave millions of people unable to use everyday services.

“Cloud services are a huge point of failure and will always be a potential weakness in digital infrastructures. They could even become a potential target for such services by cybercriminals.”One person affected by the problems, Gemma Atkinson, from Crewe, Cheshire, said she had been left stranded at a petrol station without the means to pay after her Revolut app stopped working.

Ms Atkinson told The Telegraph: “I was taking my daughters to school and had only 18 miles on my car, so I filled the car to full at over £90, but then I couldn’t pay.

“The card kept declining, and the manager came out and I had to sign a form which said I had seven days to pay for the fuel or I will be prosecuted. I’m furious – I can’t pay for my daughters’ lunch cards or anything else.”John Culhane, a Revolut customer from London, said he had been unable to buy food for his children because he did not have any cash.

He said: “I’ve got four kids to feed and I can’t feed them until they fix the problem. I have only little things in the freezer which I’ve given them but I was going to do a big shop today. The whole situation is terrible.”The Financial Conduct Authority said it was liaising with Google and companies affected by the incident.