Millennium Compliance (Hansard, 13 March 1998)

§ Mr. Spellar

This is a matter for the Chief Executives of the Agencies concerned. I have asked them to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from C. L. Elliott to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about testing for millennium compliance, consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems and the costs of millennium computer compliance, as these matters fall within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Training and Recruiting Agency (ATRA). On the question of testing for millennium compliance, the ATRA is in the process of introducing a major new computer service throughout the organisation which is known as TAFMIS (the Training and Financial Management Information System). It is due for completion in 1999 and has been purchased as a PFI project and has, as part of the contract, been subjected to Year 2000 testing throughout its development, testing and introduction. In addition, by taking this approach, the ATRA have transferred the risk and responsibility for Year 2000 compliance to the service provider, EDS Defence Ltd. There are some small legacy systems existing in the Agency which have been advised on procedures for testing. To date, no problems have been identified. Other than EDS Defence Ltd, who are involved with the TAFMIS system, there are no other consultants or contractors working specifically on the Year 2000 computer problem within the ATRA. It is not possible to identify the costs of the millennium compliance work for the TAFMIS system. I hope this is helpful.

Letter from N. Pearson to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about millennium compliancy as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre Defence Agency. I have been asked to respond to all three of your questions, and to do so, I would like first to clarify some of the terms I have used. Our programme of testing for millennium compliancy has been followed by rectification, which has in turn been followed by validation of the systems. In some cases this validation has resulted in the need for further testing. While we anticipate that all rectification work should be complete by 31 Dec 98, there will be a need for continued validation work, possibly until the end of 1999. However, our mission-critical IT systems will have been rectified well before 31 December 98. Testing for Millennium Compliancy. Testing for millennium compliancy has been undertaken in three phases.

a. Large IT Systems. All work on the mainframe systems should be complete by 31 Dec 98. However a major new system is due in service in Summer 1998 and there is some question about the compliancy of one of its software programmes. For this reason the manufacturer has undertaken to provide a software upgrade, by Sep 98, which will be compliant.
b. Personal Computers. All existing PCs will have been tested by 31 Dec 98. However, since there is a continuous flow of replacement PCs coming into the Agency, it is expected that testing will be continued right up to 31 Dec 99 and possibly beyond.
c. Embedded Systems and Utilities. JARIC Defence Agency occupies a building belonging to Royal Air Force Brampton. The Agency is therefore dependent on its landlord to work with the providers of public utilities and services such as air conditioning. The landlord has informed us that he anticipates meeting his obligations of ensuring that testing, rectification and validation will have been completed by 31 Dec 99.

Consultants and Contractors ICL (formerly DESC) are the only contractor employed by the Agency on millennium compliancy tasks. The costs of millennium computer compliance The cost of millennium compliancy work at JARIC was originally estimated at £60,000. To date we have needed to spend £15,000, in order to provide software corrections to the mainframe systems. 418W I hope you will find that these answers give you the information you are seeking.

Letter from P. Ewins to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about testing for millennium compliance, and the associated cost and consultancy implications. As Chief Executive of the Meteorological Office, this matter falls within my area of responsibility. In the Met. Office, it is our aim to ensure that all individual or stand-alone business critical systems, with the exception of those due to be replaced in early 1999, are millennium compliant by December 1998. For those systems which are due to be replaced, tests to minimise the risks from date problems will also be completed by the end of this year. As far as integrated business critical systems are concerned, these will be Year 2000 compliant by September 1999 which means that the end-to-end testing will be complete by that date. A list of the consultants and contractors who have either worked or are working with us on Year 2000 computer problems is attached. The estimated full cost of millennium compliance for the many business critical systems in the Met. Office is £8M. Much of this expenditure will be related to in-house staff effort which is assessed as 120-man years, at a cost of approximately £5M. The balance will primarily be spent on external consultants and contractors and the procurement of specific tools. You may also like to know that, as a trading agency, the Met. Office falls outside the Vote structure, and that I have taken the decision to fund the project costs of compliance out of profits, thereby reducing substantially the cost impact on our customers, especially those in the public sector. Contractors and Consultants engaged by the Met. Office to work on Year 2000 Computer Problems

Admiral Management Services Ltd
Ascent Logic Corp
CMG (UK) Ltd
Datasource
Eurolink Consultants
IBM (UK)
Lorien plc
Millennium UK.

NB. The Met. Office has also engaged the services of two other Government Agencies: CCTA and DGICS.

Letter from P. D. Foxton to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to the recent question you tabled to the Secretary of State for Defence for those matters that fall within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Base Storage and Distribution Agency (ABSDA). You asked when all testing for millennium compliance will be complete. The testing of all relevant systems has already been completed. I trust I have answered your question satisfactorily.

Letter from P. D. Foxton to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to the recent question you tabled to the Secretary of State for Defence for those matters that fall within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Base Storage and Distribution Agency (ABSDA). You asked for a list of the consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems employed in ABSDA. No consultants or contractors are directly employed. However, coordinated policy, guidance and support are being provided by a Logistic Information Systems Agency project team. I trust I have answered your question satisfactorily.

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Letter from P. D. Foxton to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to the recent question you tabled to the Secretary of State for Defence for those matters that fall within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Base Storage and Distribution Agency (ABSDA). You asked for a breakdown of the costs of millennium computer compliance. Up to 31 March 1998 the Agency has not incurred any additional expenditure. I trust I have answered your question satisfactorily.

Letter from T. Ball to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence as to when all testing for millennium compliance will be complete in the Army Technical Support Agency (ATSA), as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the ATSA. The assessment phase in which all current ATSA equipment is being reviewed for millennium computer compliance will be completed by 31 March 1998. All critical systems are assessed as compliant.

Letter from T. Ball to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the consultants and contractors working on the Year 2000 computer problems employed in the Army Technical Support Agency (ATSA), as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the ATSA. No consultants or contractors are being employed by ATSA on millennium computer compliance problems. Coordinated policy and guidance is being provided to ATSA on behalf of the Quartermaster General by a project team from the Logistic Information Systems Agency.

Letter from T Ball to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the breakdown of costs of millennium computer compliance within the Army Technical Support Agency (ATSA), as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the ATSA. Up until 31 March 1998, ATSA will have incurred no additional costs in achieving millennium computer compliance. Compliance has been addressed through ATSA's long term, planned system upgrade and replacement programme.

Letter from I. S. Elrick to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about completion of testing for millennium computer compliance in the Defence Bills Agency. This matter falls within my area of responsibility as the Agency Chief Executive. Current plans envisage the completion of all critical millennium compliance testing by 31 December 1998.

Letter from I. S. Elrick to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems in the Defence Bills Agency. This matter falls within my area of responsibility as Agency Chief Executive. ICL have undertaken consultancy work which assisted in the preparation for compliance testing; no other consultants or contractors have been involved.

Letter from I. S. Elrick to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the costs of millennium computer compliance for the Defence Bills Agency. This matter falls within my area of responsibility as Agency Chief Executive. 420W The breakdown of additional costs to ensure millennium compliance is set out below:

	£ (ex VAT)
Consultancy	48,625
Test software	2,646
Total	51,271

The actual testing and rectification work is being carried out by in-house resources diverted from other work at no additional cost.

Letter from John Chisholm to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I have been asked to reply to your questions on millennium computer compliance on behalf of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and I will answer all three questions in this letter. In common with many other large organisations DERA has established a programme under which all systems are being addressed in a controlled priority order. Priority is dictated by safety, security and business criticality. In accordance with the deadline set by the Central IT Unit, DERA plans to have all its 'mission critical' (highest priority) systems assessed for compliance and rectified (if necessary), including associated testing, by December 1998. Medium priority systems and the majority of low priority systems will be assessed and rectified within 1999, with most being completed by the third quarter of 1999. There are about 38 full and part-time consultants and contractors employed on Year 2000 activities in DERA from six different firms: Admiral, Comax, DARIUS Computing, DEC, Racon and Serco. This situation is subject to change and the information is provided for Tuesday 3 March 1998. The cost to date of addressing the Year 2000 problem in DERA is approximately £1.1 million. I hope this information is helpful.

Letter from John Chisholm to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I have been asked to reply to your questions on millennium computer compliance on behalf of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and I will answer all three questions in this letter. In common with many other large organisations DERA has established a programme under which all systems are being addressed in a controlled priority order. Priority is dictated by safety, 421W security and business criticality. In accordance with the deadline set by the Central IT Unit, DERA plans to have all its 'mission critical' (highest priority) systems assessed for compliance and rectified (if necessary), including associated testing, by December 1998. Medium priority systems and the majority of low priority systems will be assessed and rectified within 1999, with most being completed by the third quarter of 1999. There are about 38 full and part-time consultants and contractors employed on Year 2000 activities in DERA from six different firms: Admiral, Comax, DARIUS Computing, DEC, Racon and Serco. This situation is subject to change and the information is provided for Tuesday 3 March 1998. The cost to date of addressing the Year 2000 problem in DERA is approximately £1.1 million. I hope this information is helpful.

Letter from C. G. Holtom to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the completion date for millennium compliance testing as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as the Chief Executive of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre Agency. All millennium testing at the DISC will be completed by the end of March 98.

Letter from C. G. Holtom to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as the Chief Executive of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre Agency. No consultants or contractors are working on Year 2000 computer problems at the DISC.

Letter from C. G. Holtom to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost of millennium computer compliance as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as the Chief Executive of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre Agency. Although it is not yet possible to give an exact figure for the cost of millennium computer compliance at the DISC, as the testing programme has yet to be completed and evaluated, that cost will be no more than £200K.

Letter from T. McG. Brown to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the date when testing for millennium compliance will be complete as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Postal and Courier Services Agency (DPCSA). The testing of DPCSA strategic and small systems is complete, the assessment of ancillary systems should be completed by the end of April 1998. I hope that this is helpful.

Letter from T. McG. Brown to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding the consultants and contractors working on millennium compliance as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Postal and Courier Services Agency. No consultants have been used, the contractors used are:

X-Tech (Open Systems) Limited
Druckman Information Technology
EDS
I hope this information is helpful.

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Letter from T. McG. Brown to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding the costs for millennium computer compliance as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Postal and Courier Services Agency. The estimated cost of contactor support to the end of the current financial year is some £12,500 including VAT. Our in house costs are not separately identified. I hope this information is helpful.

Letter from R. E. Ratazzi to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence, about testing for millennium compliance, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Transport and Movements Executive Agency. The assessment phase, in which all equipment was tested, was completed by 31 January 1998.

Letter from R. E. Ratazzi to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence, which requests a list of consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Transport and Movements Executive Agency. DTMX has employed directly just one firm of consultants, Lorien, to ensure that a specific system was Year 2000 compliant. However, coordinated policy and guidance is provided on behalf of the Quartermaster General (QMG) by a Logistic Information Systems Agency (LISA) team.

Letter from R. E. Rotazzi to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence, which requests a breakdown of the costs of millennium computer compliance, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Transport and Movements Executive Agency. Up until 31 March 1998, additional spend on millennium computer compliance has been: hardware £23,106.37; software £386.50; consultancy £9,165.00, giving a total spend of £32,657.87.

Letter from P. A. Tucker to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about when all testing for millennium compliance will be complete in the Defence Vetting Agency, as this falls within the area of responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Agency, who is out of the office on business. The Defence Vetting Agency formed on 1st April 1997, from four separate vetting units—one in each of the Services, and one in the Ministry of Defence. The main systems used by the Agency are inherited, and there are service level agreements between the DVA (as customer) and the owners of these systems (as suppliers). The Agency does not therefore have prime responsibility for Year 2000 Compliance in respect of these systems, although it has sought confirmation from the respective suppliers that their systems will be made Year 2000 compliant. In addition to the four major systems which the Agency uses, it owns some 120 assorted Personal Computers, 10 FAX machines, and 11 Photocopiers. A substantial number of these items are elderly and due for routine replacement before 2000. The remaining items will be checked individually for Year 2000 Compliance by September 1998, and replaced if necessary. I hope this is helpful.

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Letter from P. A. Tucker to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for separate lists of consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems employed in the Defence Vetting Agency, as this falls within the area of responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Agency, who is out of the office on business. The Defence Vetting Agency formed on 1st April 1997, from four separate vetting units—one in each of the Services, and one in the Ministry of Defence. The main systems used by the Agency are inherited, and there are service level agreements between the DVA (as customer) and the owners of these systems (as suppliers). The Agency does not therefore have prime responsibility for Year 2000 Compliance in respect of these systems, although it has sought confirmation from the respective suppliers that their systems will be made Year 2000 compliant. In addition to the four major systems which the Agency uses, it owns some 120 assorted Personal Computers, 10 FAX machines, and 11 Photocopiers. A substantial number of these items are elderly and due for routing replacement before 2000. The remaining items will be checked individually for Year 2000 Compliance by September 1998, and replaced if necessary. There are no consultants or contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems with this equipment, and we do not envisage it being necessary to employ them on this matter at any stage in the future. I hope this is helpful.

Letter from P. A. Tucker to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for a breakdown of the costs of millennium computer compliance in the Defence Vetting Agency, as this falls within the area of responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Agency, who is out of the office on business. The Defence Vetting Agency formed on 1st April 1997, from four separate vetting units—one in each of the Services, and one in the Ministry of Defence. The main systems used by the Agency are inherited, and there are service level agreements between the DVA (as customer) and the owners of these systems (as suppliers). The Agency does not there fore have prime responsibility for Year 2000 Compliance in respect of these systems, although it has sought confirmation from the respective suppliers that their systems will be made Year 2000 compliant. In addition to the four major systems which the Agency uses, it owns some 120 assorted Personal Computers, 10 FAX machines, and I I Photocopiers. A substantial number of these items are elderly and due for routine replacement before 2000. The remaining items will be checked individually for Year 2000 Compliance by September 1998, and replaced if necessary. The replacement costs will emerge during this process. They are expected to be met from within the Agency's budget. I hope this is helpful.

Letter from A. W. Pollard to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding testing for millennium compliance, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Logistic Information Systems Agency. LISA is responsible for providing Year 2000 in-house and contractor support to the Quartermaster General's Top Level Budget (TLB) in respect of all Army Logistic Information Systems, whether operated by LISA or its customers. All costs are borne by the TLB and LISA bears no additional costs. Year 2000 progress, compliance and funding information is reported by the TLB, through the Ministry of Defence, in respect of all of the TLB Agencies and users.

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Letter from A. W. Pollard to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding consultants and contractors working on the Year 2000 computer problem, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Logistic Information Systems Agency. LISA is responsible for providing Year 2000 in-house and contractor support to the Quartermaster General's Top Level Budget (TLB) in respect of all Army Logistic Information Systems, whether operated by LISA or its customers. All costs are borne by the TLB and LISA bears no additional costs. Year 2000 progress, compliance and funding information is reported by the TLB, through the Ministry of Defence, in respect of all of the TLB Agencies and users. Currently LISA has engaged the consultancy services of Lorien PLC and the contractor services of both Syntegra and EDS Defence Ltd, the latter being the LISA Partner.

Letter from A. W. Pollard to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding the costs of millennium computer compliance, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Logistic Information Systems Agency. LISA is responsible for providing Year 2000 in-house and contractor support to the Quartermaster General's Top Level Budget (TLB) in respect of all Army Logistic Information Systems, whether operated by LISA or its customers. All costs are borne by the TLB and LISA bears no additional costs. Year 2000 progress, compliance and funding information is reported by the TLB, through the Ministry of Defence, in respect of all of the TLB Agencies and users.

Letter from M. J. A. Smallwood to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about the Ministry of Defence Police, on behalf of the Chief Constable/Chief Executive of the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) Agency, as this falls into his area of responsibility. The Chief Constable/Chief Executive is away from the office at present. The date of completion of final testing for millennium compliance in the Ministry of Defence Police is dependent on the supply of solutions by manufacturers. MDP plan to complete their work by 31 March 1999, and put in place contingency work for unproven solutions not available by that date. At the date of your question and this reply there were no consultants nor contractors employed in the Ministry of Defence Police working on Year 2000 computer problems. There has been no extra cost to date for millennium computer compliance work for the Ministry of Defence Police. The range and cost of these and other computerised and microchip dependent millennium issues, e.g. vehicles, communications, environmental, access and alarm systems, is being addressed.

Letter from J. H. S. McAnally to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State about the date for completion of all Millennium compliance testing within the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency (NRTA) in my capacity as Chief Executive of the NRTA. Of the 51 I NRTA systems, 424 (83% have been assessed for compliance to date. Completion of compliance testing of the remainder is expected to be achieved by 30 April 1998. The NRTA is working to achieve Year 2000 compliance for all critical systems by 31 December 1998, and for non-critical systems the compliance target date is 31 December 1999. For completeness, I have included NRTA systems owned by the MoD (Procurement Executive and other third-parties), although responsibility for achieving compliance remains with those authorities.

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Letter from J. H. S. McAnally to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State about the number of consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computer problems within the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency (NRTA) in my capacity as Chief Executive of the NRTA. There are currently no consultants or contractors working on Year 2000 problems associated with NRTA-owned systems.

Letter from J. H. S. McAnally to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State about a breakdown of costs of Millennium computer compliance for the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency (NRTA) in my capacity as Chief Executive of the NRTA. The estimated costs to rectify NRTA-owned systems known to be non-compliant is £859k. Further estimated costs in the region of £900, are estimated for the systems still to be assessed. This leads to an overall cost estimate of £1.76 million for this Agency.

Letter from M. A. Rowe to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about testing for millennium compliance within the Pay and Personnel Agency as the matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Pay and Personnel Agency. Within the plans for the agency, and in line with general MOD requirements, all business areas within the agency are scheduled to have completed their compliance testing by the end of December 1998. Most areas are currently scheduled to complete by the end of September 1998, which allows for up to 3 months extra contingency.

Letter from M. A. Rowe to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about consultants and contractors working on Year 2000 computers problems for the Pay and Personnel Agency as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Pay and Personnel Agency. At the moment we have no consultants within the Agency working on Year 2000 problems. Similarly we have no contractors specifically employed on Year 2000 matters. However we do have a contract with EASAMS for support of our IT systems at Worcester, and they have been requested to include migrating the software to a millennium compliant environment within that contract.

Letter from M. A. Rowe to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost of ensuring millennium computer compliance for the Pay and Personnel Agency as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Pay and Personnel Agency. The actual spend to date on Year 2000 issues is approximately £155,000 of which £80,000 is the costs of the staff resources so far expanded in checking the legacy systems. The remaining £75,000 was for PC replacements, including the software, and some mainframe testing tools. All these costs have been subsumed within the planned operating budget, and no additional cost has yet been allocated.

Letter from G. Jones to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking when all testing for millennium compliance will be complete, as these matters fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Signals Engineering Establishment Defence Agency. The Agency has a large number of computer-based systems on site, some purchased and maintained by the Agency in support of its own business, others supplied by external sponsors responsible for RAF-wide Information Technology infrastructure. The projects 426W to complete millennium testing for this second category are managed separately by the external sponsors and are not known at individual sites. Testing of all systems for which RAFSEE has direct responsibility will be completed, and an action plan published, by 30 Sep 98.

Letter from G. Jones to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for details of consultants and contractors employed on the Year 2000 computer problems, as these matters fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Signals Engineering Establishment Defence Agency. The Agency has a large number of computer-based systems on site, some purchased and maintained by the Agency in support of its own business, others supplied by external sponsors responsible for RAF-wide Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. The numbers of staff employed (elsewhere) addressing Year 2000 problems for this second category are not known at individual sites. Support for the systems for which the Agency has direct responsibility is provided under a Multi Activity Contract, and it is estimated that no more than one contractor (part time) is currently working on Year 2000 issues. There are no consultants currently employed by the Agency on the Year 2000 problem since the Agency has its own IT experts who are addressing the problem as an internal task.

Letter from G. Jones to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for details of the costs of millennium computer compliance, as these matters fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Signals Engineering Establishment Defence Agency. The Agency has a large number of computer-based systems on site, some purchased and maintained by the Agency in support of its own business, others supplied by external sponsors responsible for RAF-wide Information Technology infrastructure. The costs associated with achieving Year 2000 compliance for this second category will be managed separately by the external sponsors and are not known at individual sites. The Agency is currently embarking on a comprehensive upgrade programme of its business systems to improve efficiency and reduce ongoing support and licence costs. The new systems will be Year 2000 compliant and will therefore solve the millennium problems so far identified. However, it would not be appropriate to count the cost of this upgrade against the Year 2000 problem since it would have happened anyway. The only costs that could be assigned specifically to addressing the millennium problem are the staff costs of our in-house team, approximately £50,000.

Letter from A. J. Stables to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence about when testing for millennium compliance will be complete, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Training Group Defence Agency. This Agency will have completed millennium compliance testing by December 1998.

Letter from A. J. Stables to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence about which consultants and contractors are working on Year 2000 computer problems, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Training Group Defence Agency. Oracle UK Ltd and Sequent Computers Systems Ltd are currently supplying consultancy services on Year 2000 issues to this Agency.

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Letter from A. J. Stables to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: I am replying to your Question to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence about the costs of millennium computer compliance, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Training Group Defence Agency. Up to the end of Fiscal Year 1998, this Agency has contained all millennium testing and associated replacement within existing replacement and resource schedules. Consequently, no expenditure has been incurred which can be uniquely identified as Year 2000 expenditure.

Letter from J. P. Clarke to Dr. Julian Lewis, dated 13 March 1998: You recently asked the Secretary of State for Defence three Parliamentary Questions relating to specific aspects of millennium compliance at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO). As these matters fall within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the UKHO I have been asked to reply to you direct. I hope you will accept this reply as a response to all three Parliamentary Questions. Turning first to your question about the completion of millennium compliance, there is undoubtedly a considerable amount of work to be completed and it is anticipated that testing will have to continue right up to the end of 1999. That said the later testing will be in relation to systems of low criticality; it is planned that rectification and testing of our critical systems will be completed by the end of March 1999. The UKHO has entered into a contract with AMTEC Consulting Limited to carry out most of the work on this project. In addition to this a Project Manager with some key staff from existing resources have been allocated to support the AMTEC team. It is envisaged that a further contract will be negotiated with AMTEC to take through to full assessment, rectification and testing. As a consequence it is inevitable that some staff enhancement will be needed. Finally, as regards your question about a cost breakdown for the millennium programme, I should explain that the programme is broken down into two distinct projects. The first project is the pre-assessment and scoping project, whilst the second project—that relating to full assessment, rectification and testing—is still in the process of being negotiated. As such, it is not yet possible to provide you with a detailed breakdown of the costs likely to be incurred. Apart from the work let to AMTEC it is also relevant that certain internal staff costs will be incurred as some of the work being conducted for millennium compliance would have been undertaken anyway for internal UKHO business reasons. I am sorry that I cannot be more specific about the costs involved, but it is my judgement, and the one upon which planning assumptions are being made, that the total costs likely to be incurred. covering internal and external services, will be in the region of £2.25M. I hope this reply has been of some assistance.