Press officers turn to text as Gov workers blocked from sending emails

Saturday 18 March 2023

An "unexpected event" affecting the email system used by thousands of public sector employees blocked messages from being sent yesterday - with officials forced to respond to media queries about the disruption by text message.

The issue affected workers across Government, but also in other key public sector areas including the Law Officers' Department, and organisations that use the same system such as Family Nursing and Home Care.

Express contacted Government for comment, with officials saying that they had responded via email. Unfortunately, the email was never received and the following comments subsequently had to be sent by text message.

Fiona Capstick, Interim Group Director of Modernisation and Digital, said: "The Government is aware that certain emails are being blocked from sending. We are working with our service provider to review and resolve.

"The issues we are experiencing are as a result of an unexpected event which affected our service provider.

"We are taking urgent steps to resolve these issues." 

Rose McCloskey, Head of Jersey Enterprise from JT said: "We've been made aware of a fault with the email system used by the Government of Jersey which has resulted in some emails not being delivered, causing them to be held in a waiting queue.

"We've identified the cause and can confirm that emails are now being released, however there may still be a slight delay.

"We are working with our colleagues in the Government to ensure this is prevented in future and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this fault.”