§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS has spent on its messaging services on NHS net through BT Syntegra. [124089]
§ Ms StuartA total of £7.1 million has been spent on messaging services on National Health Service net through British Telecommunications Syntegra in the period 1995 to 2000.
30W
§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the savings to the NHS over(a) one year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years through introducing a messaging service based upon a SMPT Internet Mail system. [124092]
§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the cost to the NHS of the recent I Love You virus; and what measures he is taking to ensure that future breaches of NHS messaging services are minimised. [124093]
§ Ms StuartThe measures taken by the National Health Service net contractors were at no charge to the NHS. Any costs at NHS trust and health authorities would be largely in the time of personnel as a part of their normal duties to manage local e-mail services and have not been identified separately.
NHSnet provides controls for network access between organisations, including transfer of e-mails between NHSnet and external systems that are passed through a secure gateway between NHSnet and the Internet. Management of the gateway is the responsibility of the NHSnet service providers under the supervision of the NHS Information Authority. The NHS Information Authority maintains close liaison with the service providers and users of NHSnet services to ensure that information about virus attacks and appropriate countermeasures are disseminated rapidly.
The management teams remain vigilant and will deal with future threats in the same professional manner in which the "I LOVE YOU" incident was handled.