§ Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if his Department has plans to migrate to Microsoft Windows XP and MS Office XP; what estimate of the costs involved has been made; and what alternatives have been examined. [8782]
§ Dr. MoonieThe Ministry of Defence (MOD) is planning to integrate its corporate information systems under a single Defence Information Infrastructure programme, the requirements for which are still being 319W formulated. If approved, this programme will assess various options including software provision and any potential move to Microsoft XP products, taking account of costs and benefits.
Separately, MOD has recently agreed a defence-wide licensing agreement reflecting the considerable number of Microsoft products already used within the MOD. This agreement would allow MOD to migrate to new products if shown to be cost-effective.