§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what advice his Department has offered local authorities on millennium compliance and its cost. [18887]
§ Mr. Raynsford[holding answer 3 December 1997]: Each local authority is responsible for ensuring its own millennium compliance. Authorities have access to high-quality advice on this issue, through the Local Government Management Board and other professional bodies. In addition, the Government have published best practice guidance on millennium compliance. We have 287W taken the financial implications of millennium compliance into account in the proposed 1998–99 local government financial settlement.
§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the total cost of millennium compliance to local government. [19202]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Department has not itself made an estimate of the total cost of millennium compliancy. The Local Government Association's estimate of the cost, for 1998–99, of information technology adaption for the year 2000 was taken into account in the Local Government Finance provisional settlement which was announced to the House on Tuesday 2 December.