§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when(a) the private offices of Ministers in his Department and (b) officials in the Main Building will be accessible by e-mail via the internet. [125809]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 13 June 2000]: Internet e-mail access has been available to Ministers Outer Offices and senior MOD officials since 22 March 1999 via a dedicated MOD Main Building network. This provides web browsing and e-mail for both the Cabinet Office sponsored Government Secure Intranet (GSI), and the internet from a single account at any of the dedicated network workstations. Currently, this network has 104 accounts. This is an interim solution while the Department 28W works to connect its main headquarters IT system, CHOtS, to the GSI and the internet, allowing e-mail only access to the internet for unclassified material.
Work is also in hand to provide web browsing of the internet, using separate workstations on a dedicated RESTRICTED only version of CHOtS, CSV8 Open. CSV8 Open will initially not be able to provide access to the GSI, but work is in progress to establish this link by 4th Qtr 2000.
The provision of the standard CHOtS and CSV8 Open solutions are both subject to the successful completion of pilot testing, currently being undertaken within MOD.
In addition to these initiatives, internet access, where needed and backed by an approved business case, has been provided by stand-alone PCs purchased through an MOD catalogue. These stand-alone internet PCs will either be replaced by the CHOtS initiatives mentioned above or will become part of a fully managed network—the Decant Migration Network (DMN)—which will support CHOtS Open. It is intended that the DMN will be provided when staff move out of Main Building into the decant buildings during its redevelopment.