§ Mr. Cohenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will describe the types of studies that were undertaken to plan the Government data network; and whether he will place these studies in the Library.
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§ Mr. BrookePlanning Government telecommunications is an evolutionary process. The current proposals for the Government data network derive from the data communications recommendations of the "Eosys" Study. Extracts from that study and the Government's response were published in 1984 as "Strategic Study of Government Administrative Telecommunications", IT series No. 5. A copy is in the Library. Follow-up work included a major study, by PACTEL, in 1985, of "Non-Telephony Administrative Telecommunications Needs", which was distributed and discussed among Departments. I have placed a copy in the Library. Those studies envisaged an integrated Government network for both speech and data transmission, developing incrementally as a longer-term objective. Other work has been done by individual Departments to determine their telecommunications strategies and requirements. The proposals for a Government data network are one way of making the first step towards an integrated network.