§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what tests he has carried out on the ICCS ADAS 2000 equipment; where such tests were executed and under what circumstances; and what training staff have received on this equipment. [94645]
§ Mr. HillTesting carried out on ADAS 2000 covered
Testing and pre-roll out checks of the hardware itself;Full functional acceptance testing of the software;Test of the system's ability to cope with the year 2000 itself, and with the following leap year date;Performance testing by a number of users;On-site trials at a Coastguard Co-ordination Centre.All of these tests were done according to a pre-designed plan drawn up before delivery of the software by the supplier. They were performed on a test system set up using examples of the target hardware at both the client and server ends. Users were fully involved in both the planning and testing processes.
As to training, a team of people drawn from Coastguard Operations Staff accompanied the installation team to each Co-ordination Centre and instructed Coastguard operators in the use of the new software and the difference between it and the previous version.
ICCS is a separate major project where the current VHF and MF Radio Control Equipment in HM Coastguard will be replaced.