§ 34. Mr. Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston)What progress is being made in preparation for the millennium bug in (a) Government Departments and(b) the wider public sector. [62163]
§ The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Margaret Beckett)The results of the latest review, which I announced in the House on 2 December, show that central Government continue to make steady progress in tackling the millennium bug, particularly in respect of business-critical systems. Three quarters of Departments and agencies have now completed 50 per cent. or more of the necessary correction work on such critical information technology systems, which is an increase from a figure of half of Departments and agencies in the previous quarter. Two fifths have completed 90 per cent. or more of the work, which is double the number from the previous quarter.
The returns also show that, on the whole, satisfactory progress is being made across the wider public sector. Although there is some concern that a number of individual organisations still lag behind, the Government are actively pursuing progress in those instances.
§ Mr. MillerI thank my right hon. Friend for that frank and detailed response and for the publication of the last quarterly report. Does she agree that press speculation about people hoarding food, for example, in readiness for the millennium is ill founded? Perhaps the only thing that people should hoard is champagne, as it might be legitimately in short supply. Will my right hon. Friend join me in condemning those who promote such scare stories, including Opposition Members?
§ Mrs. BeckettI am grateful to my hon. Friend, but I will not be drawn into commenting on his suggestion about stockpiling champagne. I agree that it is unfortunate that there are those—including some Opposition Members—who are handling this matter frivolously and have no regard for providing sound advice to the public. My hon. Friend gave a very good example of that approach. Action 2000 was asked to comment on a report from the United States Red Cross, which was turned into an entirely unjustified scare story in this country.
§ Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East)If the right hon. Lady thinks that Opposition Members are acting frivolously, perhaps she should consider whether Government Members are acting complacently. Is she aware of recent press stories that suggest that a significant proportion of Ministry of Defence systems will fail the test when the millennium bug comes into operation? Will she contrast those reports with complacent statement after complacent statement made in this House in past months about MOD systems? How many more Government Department estimates will be shown to be grossly over-optimistic in that way?
§ Mrs. BeckettThere is no complacency on the Government side, as we have made plain repeatedly—although we can afford to be slightly complacent about the fact that we are publishing this information on a more sustained and thorough basis than any other Government.
I thought that the hon. Gentleman had been around long enough, both in this House and outside it, to know better than to base his views on recent press stories. The 604 Ministry of Defence continues to work on the very important systems that it supervises. It has made plain that all RAF aircraft will be compliant by January next—next month—and it is planned that all Royal Navy ships and Army mission critical systems will be compliant by the summer. No one is complacent: everyone is anxious to see as much work completed as possible. Unfortunately, openness does not always lead to people reflecting accurately the reports in the public domain.