Kensington and Chelsea Council's recovery from a significant cyber attack in November 2025 is on track
to have all systems restored by the end of the summer, a council meeting heard. However, service backlogs persist in key areas, with a target to address these by December 2026.
At a Leadership Team meeting on Wednesday 15 July 2026, councillors were updated that 94% of the council's systems had been restored. While recovery efforts are progressing, areas such as revenue and benefits, complaints, and planning have experienced service backlogs.
The cyber attack, which occurred in November 2025, led to direct costs of £1.162 million for the initial response and recovery phase, funded from reserves. The council is also working with national experts and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to manage the impact of data that was copied during the attack, with notifications to affected residents planned.
The attack has prompted a review of the council's IT infrastructure. Key priorities include enhancing cyber resilience, creating a modern ICT infrastructure, building a coherent digital ecosystem, simplifying applications, and treating data as a critical foundation. The approach also emphasizes reimagining services around residents, building workforce capability, supporting transformation, and enabling innovation.
