§ Ms Janet AndersonTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what steps she is taking to measure and evaluate the effect of her Department's policies on women. [5492]
§ Mr. SproatIn July of this year, the model guidance on policy appraisal for equal treatment was revised and circulated at Cabinet level for Departments to adapt to their own circumstances. A copy was placed in the Library of the House. This guidance requires officials to identify policy issues which might impact differently on women and men, to assess whether this is justified in policy terms, and to adjust the policy if it is not. My permanent secretary wrote to all senior officials in my Department in July about policy appraisal and the need for the Department and its sponsored bodies to reflect the guidance in future. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State intends to monitor the effect of this guidance.
The recent Government report "One year On" outlines action taken by the Government to benefit women since the world conference on women, and also includes baseline statistics against which future progress can be measured.
§ Mr. HoonTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many lines of computer code there are in her Department's computer systems. [5512]
§ Mr. SproatThe Department uses a number of proprietary software packages and, for these, information on the number of programmes or lines of source code is known only to the supplier. An inventory is being carried out of that bespoke software which is likely still to be in use in 2000.