§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress he is making on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation harmonisation in relation to defence standards 00–55 and 00–56 covering safety critical software.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe United Kingdom has taken the lead in setting out the requirements for safety critical software to meet the needs of the late 1990s. The draft defence standards 00–55 and 00–56 have been given extensive distribution for comment within the United Kingdom and internationally. NATO is using 00–55 and 00–56 as source documents for its own guideline documents.
It is important for international standards covering safety critical software to meet the requirements of both the civil and defence sectors, and to be accepted by the widest possible range of countries. The Ministry of Defence is therefore working closely with other Government Departments in seeking to harmonise the approaches of the United Kingdom defence and civil sectors. The United Kingdom position will, in due course, be presented to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a body with a very wide membership, which has recently started to develop international standards for safety-related systems and the computers and software used in them. Other countries, including NATO members, will present their views to the IEC in a similar way.
The Ministry of Defence is taking into account the work of the IEC as part of the process of consultation on 63W the draft defence standards 00–55 and 00–56 before they are issued as interim standards, and it will continue to aim for alignment with civil standards in any future revisions.