Defra admits Windows 10 refresh letter to MPs was wrong – machines were already on Windows 11
(2025/12/02)
- Reference: 1764670511
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/02/defra_windows_10_11/
- Source link:
The UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed its £312 million Windows 10 laptop refresh was, in fact, followed by a Windows 11 upgrade after an earlier letter to Parliament misstated the department's operating system timeline.
Mexit, not Brexit, is the new priority for the UK [1]READ MORE
In October, Defra wrote a ( [2]still-accessible ) letter to a Parliamentary spending watchdog about "upgrading obsolete devices and software, including removing 31,500 Windows 7 laptops from the estate and upgrading to Windows 10," in response to calls for the department to modernize its IT.
The Register [3]reported on the letter, which arrived at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) more than a year after its May 2024 deadline, and – naturally – noted that Defra had invested heavily in a new OS just as it was approaching Microsoft's support cliff.
Defra was quick to respond by calling out "inaccuracies" in our reporting, but as it happens, those so-called inaccuracies were sitting in Defra's own original comms to MPs – as Edward Sheridan, a spokesperson for the PAC, confirmed to The Register .
"Defra has confirmed... that the referenced letter to the PAC contains a factual inaccuracy," he said.
[4]
Almost two months later, a revised version of the letter has finally been published. For everyone's sake – especially our inboxes – we'll assume this one has been proofread a bit harder.
[5]Microsoft's data sovereignty: Now with extra sovereignty!
[6]UK politicians to draft outage blueprint after AWS calamity
[7]Former UK prime minister Sunak becomes human Clippy for Microsoft, Anthropic
[8]Britain jumps into bed with Palantir in £1.5B defense pact
The [9]revised letter confirms that not only were 31,500 aging Windows 7 machines replaced with Windows 10 devices, but the entire laptop estate was subsequently moved to Windows 11 before Windows 10's October 14, 2025, support deadline even arrived.
"I am writing to provide an updated version of the previous letter sent by Defra on 10 October 2025. This is to clarify that following the Windows 10 upgrade, Defra moved to Windows 11 in order to keep our systems up to date and secure," wrote Paul Kissack, Defra's permanent secretary. He later added that "all laptops were upgraded to Windows 11 by March 2025".
[10]
Defra's clarification that all laptops were refreshed by March 2025 implies that any remaining Windows 11 migration work applies to desktops and other endpoints not covered by the laptop switch.
However, the department did not respond to The Register 's questions, which included queries around the size of its active PC estate, cost estimates for any additional endpoint purchases, whether it bought extended security updates from Microsoft, and whether discounts or multi-year licensing agreements formed part of the deal.
[11]
Still, it turns out Defra's PC fleet got a timely OS upgrade after all – while its letter to MPs shipped with what testers politely call "known bugs." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/opinion_column_mexit_not_brexit/
[2] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49838/documents/267198/default/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/05/uk_defra_dept_spent_312m_window_10/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/07/microsoft_announces_strengthening_of_sovereignty/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/uk_govt_outage_plan/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/former_uk_prime_minister_rishi/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/20/uk_palantir_defense_pact/
[9] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50251/documents/271544/default/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Mexit, not Brexit, is the new priority for the UK [1]READ MORE
In October, Defra wrote a ( [2]still-accessible ) letter to a Parliamentary spending watchdog about "upgrading obsolete devices and software, including removing 31,500 Windows 7 laptops from the estate and upgrading to Windows 10," in response to calls for the department to modernize its IT.
The Register [3]reported on the letter, which arrived at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) more than a year after its May 2024 deadline, and – naturally – noted that Defra had invested heavily in a new OS just as it was approaching Microsoft's support cliff.
Defra was quick to respond by calling out "inaccuracies" in our reporting, but as it happens, those so-called inaccuracies were sitting in Defra's own original comms to MPs – as Edward Sheridan, a spokesperson for the PAC, confirmed to The Register .
"Defra has confirmed... that the referenced letter to the PAC contains a factual inaccuracy," he said.
[4]
Almost two months later, a revised version of the letter has finally been published. For everyone's sake – especially our inboxes – we'll assume this one has been proofread a bit harder.
[5]Microsoft's data sovereignty: Now with extra sovereignty!
[6]UK politicians to draft outage blueprint after AWS calamity
[7]Former UK prime minister Sunak becomes human Clippy for Microsoft, Anthropic
[8]Britain jumps into bed with Palantir in £1.5B defense pact
The [9]revised letter confirms that not only were 31,500 aging Windows 7 machines replaced with Windows 10 devices, but the entire laptop estate was subsequently moved to Windows 11 before Windows 10's October 14, 2025, support deadline even arrived.
"I am writing to provide an updated version of the previous letter sent by Defra on 10 October 2025. This is to clarify that following the Windows 10 upgrade, Defra moved to Windows 11 in order to keep our systems up to date and secure," wrote Paul Kissack, Defra's permanent secretary. He later added that "all laptops were upgraded to Windows 11 by March 2025".
[10]
Defra's clarification that all laptops were refreshed by March 2025 implies that any remaining Windows 11 migration work applies to desktops and other endpoints not covered by the laptop switch.
However, the department did not respond to The Register 's questions, which included queries around the size of its active PC estate, cost estimates for any additional endpoint purchases, whether it bought extended security updates from Microsoft, and whether discounts or multi-year licensing agreements formed part of the deal.
[11]
Still, it turns out Defra's PC fleet got a timely OS upgrade after all – while its letter to MPs shipped with what testers politely call "known bugs." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/opinion_column_mexit_not_brexit/
[2] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49838/documents/267198/default/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/05/uk_defra_dept_spent_312m_window_10/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/07/microsoft_announces_strengthening_of_sovereignty/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/uk_govt_outage_plan/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/former_uk_prime_minister_rishi/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/20/uk_palantir_defense_pact/
[9] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50251/documents/271544/default/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aS7Gt9cqRvlRw8PBHa9CoAAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Si 1
Would love to know what applications they're running to still need Windows. If all they're doing is email/Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Facebook there's no excuse not to move to open source.
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herman
So now, nobody can log in due to a missing password box?
Hah!
I used to know someone who worked at DEFRA. This doesn't surprise me. The daily tales of shambolic process woes were almost comical.