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Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Answer

Mr. Dennis Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what results he obtained from his first quarterly review of progress on tackling the millennium computer problem within central government. [32993] Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what plans he has to inform the House about progress of government departments on millennium compliance. [32360] Dr. David Clark: In my statement to the House on 27 November 1997, I announced that I would review progress on tackling the millennium computer problem within central Government on a quarterly basis. To this end, monitoring questionnaires were sent to all departments and agencies last month. I am arranging for all the completed questionnaires and a summary to be placed in the Libraries of the House and published on the internet. The progress reports indicate that many organisations have reached the testing stage, and in some cases completed work, for significant systems. On skills and resources, programmes continue generally to be assessed as adequately resource. The returns also indicate an increased awareness of the need for contingency planning. Departments and agencies report that they have sought and in most cases received assurance of compliance from IT product suppliers. We will continue to monitor this closely. More needs to be done to obtain similar assurances from non-IT suppliers, and I have written to Ministerial colleagues to ask them to make sure that this is done, and that projects fully cover non-IT aspects of the problem, such as embedded systems and external dependencies. As expected, there are a number of variations from the original cost and completion date estimates, and these are documented in the returns. The total cost estimate in the plans is now £393 million, compared with £370 million on the last round. Further variations are to be expected as this work is carried forward. I will continue to monitor these closely and to pursue any points of concern with colleagues. I will keep the House fully informed in due course, following the next quarterly review.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

32360; 307 c622W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Costs Computers ICT Government departments Millennium compliance Reviews Questionnaires

Contains statistics

Yes