Safety-critical Software (Hansard, 20 June 1990)

§ 41. Mrs. Mahon
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made towards the setting up of a standard for safety-critical software.

§ 54. Mr. David Marshall
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made towards the setting up of a standard for safety-critical software.

§ 73. Mr. McWilliam
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made towards the setting up of a standard for safety-critical software.

§ Mr. Forth
The Government are encouraging the development of standards and guidelines for all systems incorporating software, the failure of which might endanger the safety of people or property. This is being done at both national and international levels. The activity is being co-ordinated by a working group of the590W interdepartmental committee on software engineering (ICSE) on which a number of relevant Government Departments and agencies are represented.
On 8 June 1990 ICSE publicly launched "SafeIT", a consultative document on the safety of computer-controlled systems. This includes a proposed standards framework. The period for consultation lasts until 30 September 1990 and we are actively seeking the views of users and suppliers in industry and academia as well as Government. DTI and the Health and Safety Executive, which jointly provide the secretariat to ICSE, are co-ordinating the consultative process.
One of the main purposes of the document is to influence the standards-making process. The document emphasises that in order to achieve the full benefits of standardisation, sector standards should develop from an overall generic approach. Once such an overall framework is in place, the speed at which sector standards can be developed by the British Standards Institution will be greatly enhanced. Thus draft defence standards 00.55 and 00.56, now available for public comment, are examples of draft sector-specific standards which are expected to fall within the generic framework being developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission.
The SafeIT document also urges United Kingdom companies of all sizes and from all sectors to contribute actively to the development of international and European standards.