§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for what reason no external assessment has been made of the plans of his Department for millennium compliance. [78465]
§ Mr. Chris Smith[holding answer 24 March 1999]: The DCMS Year 2000 compliance programme has been audited by the Department's Internal Audit team as part of its oversight duties for the Department's processes and procedures. Internal Audit revisit the compliance work on a regular basis and review the regular returns which the Department provides to the centre. Internal Audit provides a robust and independent review of the Department's compliance programme and I do not feel that, in this case, an external assessment would add value to the process. It would also be costly.
Information on the Department's compliance programme is provided to the centre on a regular basis and is then placed in the public domain, most recently as of the publication of departmental returns and tables summarising department's progress on 16 March.