§ Mr. HoonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many separate computer programs his Department operates. [5529]
Mr. John M. TaylorA precise answer cannot be provided without disproportionate cost. A recent study within my Department covering major computer systems reported that they comprised a total of 9,873 programs. This figure excludes systems within the next steps agencies and bought in commercial packaged software, such as word processors, and operating system software.
§ Mr. HoonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many lines of computer code there are in his Department's computer systems. [5528]
Mr. John M. TaylorThe computer systems within my Department make considerable use of commercial packaged software—for example, library cataloguing and management—for which no such information is available. For software developed on a bespoke basis, the information requested is not held centrally and provision of an answer would incur disproportionate cost.