§ Mr. David AtkinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the problem of non-recognition by computers of the year 2000 with regard to his Department's computers and those for which it is responsible. [24411]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe capability of the Ministry of Defence's existing computer systems to recognise the year 2000 date change is already under investigation and an initial impact survey has been carried out to give an indication of the likely extent of the problem.
Early signs are that the effects may not be as severe as originally thought since the managers of most of the MOD's computer systems have already taken action to avoid date change errors. However, further work is in hand to provide a more comprehensive picture and it is expected that this will lead to the issue of guidance to computer users and systems managers. The work being undertaken currently by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency on this matter is being carefully monitored.