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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the conclusions of Taskforce 2000 published on 11 November in respect of his Department's most recent quarterly return on plans and progress towards Year 2000 readiness. [60226] Mrs. Roche: The DTI welcomes informed comment on its work in tackling the Year 2000 problem. The assessment referred to raised a number of points in respect of this department: Cost increase: It became clear during this year that more work would be required than expected when the original cost estimate was made in 1996. The likely increase was mentioned in our June return. Increased number of embedded systems: Audit work in this area will not be complete until the end of December. We have found more embedded items in some systems than originally thought. Progress on critical IT systems: As mentioned above, it has become clear that more work than originally anticipated will be needed, especially in relation to our main IT infrastructure. Nevertheless we remain on target to meet our declared aim of ensuring that critical IT systems are compliant by April 1999. The report also comments on a lack of information in returns from some of the Department's Next Step Agencies and sponsored organisations. The organisations concerned are making energetic progress on their programmes. Future returns will seek to provide a further understanding of their work. The results of the next quarterly review will be announced shortly to the House and copies of DTI's latest quarterly return will be placed in the Libraries of the House and published on the internet.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

60226; 319 c650W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Computers Department of Trade and Industry Government departments Millennium compliance Taskforce 2000