§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the President of the Council what reports she has received on the extent of damage done to the economies and businesses of those countries which took few or no precautions to deal with the millennium bug. [107509]
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§ Mr. BattleI have been asked to reply.
Each country and business had different levels of vulnerability to damage from failures of computerised systems. Many of the countries which are erroneously assumed to have done little benefited from the work of countries like the UK which started earlier.
We have received no reports of serious failures in key infrastructure sectors across the globe, although there have been multiple minor failures in systems. Failures which have come to light so far have been fixed quickly and have not materially affected business as usual.
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the President of the Council if she will estimate the total cost to(a) the Government and (b) private industry of the steps taken to guard against the millennium bug. [107507]
§ Mrs. BeckettCentral Government Departments and agencies spent an estimated £380 million on tackling the millennium bug in their own systems.
It is impossible to say how much it cost private industry to deal with the millennium bug. Many of the cost figures quoted so far have been conjured out of the air—nobody knows for certain how much has been spent by private industry in the United Kingdom, or indeed any other country.