§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the replacement programme for office automation and telecommunications infrastructure will be completed. [61677]
§ Mr. FatchettThe FCO's office automation replacement programme will be completed in 2000. The implementation schedule ensures that all FCO business critical computer systems will be millennium compliant, either by correction or replacement, before the end of 1999.
A private finance initiative contract that will provide a managed voice and massaging service between the FC and its overseas missions is in the final stages of negotiation. The contract, which is expected to be signed by mid February 1999, states that implementation of the full service will take 25 months from contract signature. But implementation has already started, under an Instruction to Proceed, in order to replace all non-millennium compliant telephone switchboards.