Written question asked by Geoffrey Hoon (Labour), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 28 November 1996. It was answered by Michael Jack (Conservative) on Thursday, 28 November 1996 on behalf of the Treasury.

Treasury

Question: How many lines of computer code there are in his Department's computer systems.

Answer: Mr. Hoon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many lines of computer code there are in his Department's computer systems. [5511] Mr. Jack: The Treasury uses a number of proprietary software packages and for these, information on the number of lines of source code is known only to the supplier. An inventory of bespoke software is being undertaken as part of the Treasury's strategy for dealing with the year 2000 date issue, but the compilation of this inventory is not yet complete. For programs written by Treasury staff we estimate that there are at present 75,000 lines of code. There may be a further 100,000 lines contained in programs produced for the Treasury by external suppliers. For most of these programs, the Treasury has no access to the code or has no commitment to maintain them. We have no information as to how many lines of code are contained in proprietary software such as operating systems, databases or PC packages.

Secondary information