diff --git a/images/linux/scripts/SoftwareReport/SoftwareReport.Generator.ps1 b/images/linux/scripts/SoftwareReport/SoftwareReport.Generator.ps1
index 704639c3249e..004e15657241 100644
--- a/images/linux/scripts/SoftwareReport/SoftwareReport.Generator.ps1
+++ b/images/linux/scripts/SoftwareReport/SoftwareReport.Generator.ps1
@@ -185,7 +185,9 @@ if (Test-IsUbuntu20) {
     $markdown += New-MDNewLine
 }
 
-$markdown += Build-PHPSection
+if (-not (Test-IsUbuntu16)) {
+    $markdown += Build-PHPSection
+}
 
 $markdown += New-MDHeader "Haskell" -Level 3
 $markdown += New-MDList -Style Unordered -Lines (@(
diff --git a/images/linux/scripts/installers/basic.sh b/images/linux/scripts/installers/basic.sh
index 270cc75c837a..66875b8bf28b 100644
--- a/images/linux/scripts/installers/basic.sh
+++ b/images/linux/scripts/installers/basic.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 ##  Desc:  Installs basic command line utilities and dev packages
 ################################################################################
 source $HELPER_SCRIPTS/install.sh
+source $HELPER_SCRIPTS/os.sh
 
 common_packages=$(get_toolset_value .apt.common_packages[])
 cmd_packages=$(get_toolset_value .apt.cmd_packages[])
@@ -12,4 +13,19 @@ for package in $common_packages $cmd_packages; do
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends $package
 done
 
+# Toolcache Python requires updated libssl-dev, which was previously installed from ppa:ondrej.
+# The ppa dropped Ubuntu 16 support hence we need to build OpenSSL from source
+if isUbuntu16; then
+    openSslArchiveName="openssl-1.1.1k.tar.gz"
+    openSslUrl="https://www.openssl.org/source/${openSslArchiveName}"
+    download_with_retries $openSslUrl "/tmp"
+    openSslPath="/tmp/$(basename -s .tar.gz $openSslArchiveName)"
+    mkdir -p "$openSslPath"
+    tar -C "$openSslPath" -xzf "/tmp/${openSslArchiveName}" --strip-components=1 && cd $openSslPath
+    ./config --openssldir=/etc/ssl '-Wl,--enable-new-dtags,-rpath,$(LIBRPATH)'
+    make -s
+    make install > /dev/null
+    ln -sf /etc/ssl/bin/openssl /usr/bin/openssl
+fi
+
 invoke_tests "Apt"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/images/linux/scripts/tests/Common.Tests.ps1 b/images/linux/scripts/tests/Common.Tests.ps1
index b6ad0cacbf2c..05f789277427 100644
--- a/images/linux/scripts/tests/Common.Tests.ps1
+++ b/images/linux/scripts/tests/Common.Tests.ps1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Describe "PHP" {
+Describe "PHP" -Skip:(Test-IsUbuntu16) {
 
     [array]$testCases = (Get-ToolsetContent).php.versions | ForEach-Object { @{phpVersion = $_} }
 
diff --git a/images/linux/toolsets/toolset-1604.json b/images/linux/toolsets/toolset-1604.json
index 6cc4906c5f52..90450b264174 100644
--- a/images/linux/toolsets/toolset-1604.json
+++ b/images/linux/toolsets/toolset-1604.json
@@ -253,17 +253,6 @@
             "gfortran-9"
         ]
     },
-    "php": {
-        "versions": [
-            "5.6",
-            "7.0",
-            "7.1",
-            "7.2",
-            "7.3",
-            "7.4",
-            "8.0"
-        ]
-    },
     "rubygems": [],
     "node_modules": [
         {
diff --git a/images/linux/ubuntu1604.json b/images/linux/ubuntu1604.json
index 39579597b5bb..7c26e18c7b16 100644
--- a/images/linux/ubuntu1604.json
+++ b/images/linux/ubuntu1604.json
@@ -227,7 +227,6 @@
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/bazel.sh",
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/oras-cli.sh",
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/phantomjs.sh",
-                "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/php.sh",
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/postgresql.sh",
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/pulumi.sh",
                 "{{template_dir}}/scripts/installers/ruby.sh",