§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the President of the Council what provision has been made for millennium compliance-related problems for 9 September 1999; and if she will make a statement. [77131]
§ Mrs. Beckett9999 was sometimes used as a close down, halt or standby code by programmers and some people think that September 1999 may be confused with this code. Action 2000 advise me that they have not found any cases where 9/9/99 will cause equipment to fail, and do not expect that date to have a significant impact.
On a wider point, there are many dates which may cause computers problems. Such problem dates should be tested for as appropriate. All companies should be aware of the key dates when the year 2000 will first hit their systems: for many it will be 1 April 1999 with the new financial year. Government Departments and Agencies have included testing for other relevant dates in their own programmes. The preferred dates which should be used for testing are included in the relevant British Standards Institution (BSI) advice.