HC Deb 13 March 1998 vol 308 cc373-6W
Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the estimate of £;2,700,000 for achieving millennium compliance at her Department has been revised. [32370]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: No. The estimate remains unchanged from that made under the previous Government. We will of course keep this under constant scrutiny.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the code checking exercise for millennium compliance at the Radiocommunications Agency's will be completed. [32373]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: Code checking of the Radiocommunications Agency's `business critical' bespoke software systems is planned to be complete in January 1999. All other bespoke software code checking is expected to finish by the end of May 1999.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the testing of systems for millennium compliance at the Export Credits Guarantee Department will be completed. [32375]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The bulk of the systems will be tested by 31 March 1998. However, we are awaiting upgraded software from two package suppliers and thus the testing will not be completed until these are available later in 1998.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the estimate of 184,187 for achieving millennium compliance at the Export Credits Guarantee Department has been revised. [32376]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]No.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if her estimate of £7,200 for the cost of achieving millennium compliance in the Insolvency Service has been exceeded. [32363]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The estimate of £7,200 was provided by the Insolvency Service in its response to a request for year 2000 plans to be provided to the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (cCTA) and represented the cost of remaining compliance testing for the Service's IT systems. This testing will not be completed until mid 1998 and current indications are that the original estimate will not be exceeded.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade to what extent her estimate for the costs of achieving millennium compliance in the Employment Tribunals Service has been revised, following the systems audit. [32366]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The cost of system audits is £72,850 inclusive of VAT.

The estimated cost of purchasing new compliant software is £116,860 inclusive of VAT.

An estimate is awaited from third party suppliers on the costs of remedial work on other software.

The cost of remedial work on embedded systems will be finalised following the results of the audit due by the end of March 1998.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the audit of the Employment Tribunals Service for millennium compliance will be completed. [32364]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]The audit is expected to be completed on schedule by the end of March 1998.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the Patent Office has completed contacting all suppliers about millennium compliance. [32371]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]The Patent Office is undertaking an extensive programme of checks to ensure that its effective operation is not prejudiced by the millennium date change. As part of this programme it has already been in touch with its existing suppliers of goods and services and will seek assurances on compliance from any new supplier with which it places a contract.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when all testing on Year 2000 compliance will be completed within the Department. [32353]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The core DTI plans to complete Year 2000 compliance testing by the end of April 1999.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the estimate of £850,000 for achieving millennium compliance within the Patent Office has been revised. [32372]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The Patent Office revisited this estimate in February as part of the quarterly monitoring of compliance programmes carried out by the CCTA but found no reason for change.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when(a) the conversion and (b) the testing of systems in Companies House for achieving millennium compliance will be completed. [32367]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: Conversion should still be completed by October 1998 with final testing anticipated over the Easter weekend, 1999.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade from which budgetary sub-head will the costs of millennium compliance be met by her Department. [32356]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The cost of millennium compliance work on core DTI systems will be met from several budgetary sub-heads. Outsourced technical advice and support budgets for IT and premises will meet part of the cost. Where systems are being replaced or enhanced significantly for various reasons including millennium compliance, the Department's central IT capital budget is being employed. The cost of work done by officials to manage the programme falls on the relevant budgets such as salaries and accommodation.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the estimate of £317,000 for achieving millennium compliance in the systems at Companies House has been revised. [32368]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: No, it remains our current estimate.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the assessment of the main systems at her Department for millennium compliance will be completed. [32369]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: Assessment of business critical IT systems within the core DTI is complete and necessary remedial work has started.

Officials plan to complete their assessment of building-related systems by the end of March 1998.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the estimate of £1,000,000 for achieving millennium compliance at the Radiocommunications Agency has been revised. [32374]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The Radiocommunication Agency's initial estimate for its Year 2000 programme was £1.08 million; latest estimates indicate an expected cost of £1.04 million.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will estimate the cost to her Department of(a) consultants and (b) contractors engaged by the Department to address millennium computer compliance problems; and if she will list them. [32489]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The costs of addressing the millennium compliance of core DTI computer systems are estimated as follows:

  1. (a) Consultants: £1.6 million
  2. (b) Contractors: £1.1 million.

Consultants and contractors have worked for the Department on a number of millennium computer compliance assignments. Numbers and personnel vary according to the needs of these assignments. At present the following consultants and contractors are engaged on this work in the core Department:

  1. (a) 7 Consultants, supplied by Cap Gemini (3) and CMG (4)
  2. (b) 15 Contractors, supplied by CAP Gemini (10) and ICL (5)

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many people working within the Department on millennium compliance have(a) given notice of their intention to leave and (b) left the Department in the last six months. [32352]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: No civil servants primarily engaged within the Department on millennium compliance work have given notice of their intention to leave or have left the Department in the last six months.

In that period one consultant completed an IT millennium compliance assignment and left the Department. Another moved to other duties within his company and has been replaced by a colleague. Two more have very recently given notice of resignation from their respective companies and will be replaced.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the remedial work on millennium compliance at the Insolvency Service will be completed. [32362]

Mrs. Roche

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The Insolvency Service anticipates confirming millennium compliance by the end of October 1998.

Mr. Redwood

To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much her Department will spend on achieving millennium compliance for its own computer systems between the present time and 1 January 2000. [32687]

Mrs. Beckett

[holding answer 3 March 1998]: My department plans to spend approximately £1.93 million on achieving compliance for its core computer systems between the present time and 1 January 2000.

Mr. David Atkinson

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what action the OECD has taken to promulgate the need for computer systems to be millennium compliant. [33861]

Mr. Tony Lloyd

I have been asked to reply.

We are actively considering with the OECD what work they could undertake to raise awareness on the Millennium bug.