From 16 Dec edition:

Millennium bug: Safeguards may hit #3bn

THE cost of safeguarding computer systems in Britain against the possible effects of the Millennium bug could reach #3 billion, Margaret Beckett, the Leader of the House, said yesterday.

In her final Commons statement on the measures taken to prevent the bug from affecting services, Mrs Beckett told MPs that the Government expected to have spent about #430 million on protecting its own computer technology.

That figure was 16 per cent higher than predicted when work began in 1997, she said. The bill for ensuring that companies' computers were Millennium compliant was expected to be between #1 billion and #3 billion. Mrs Beckett said every Government department had now been declared safe from the bug.

Throughout Britain as a whole, the independent assessment undertaken by Action 2000 had provided "one of the most, if not the most, comprehensive and objective pictures of national readiness for the date change in the world". Electricity and water provision and police, fire and healthcare services had been rated 100 per cent "blue", which meant that assessors had identified no risk of any material disruption.

Mrs Beckett said: "The programme of preparations for the Millennium bug is acknowledged to be among the world's leaders. We have less information about other countries. So we cannot be confident that there will not be problems elsewhere but we have taken action to assess and minimise the impact of those problems."

Of the companies which were likely to have aeroplanes in British airspace over the relevant period, none was expected to suffer computer problems related to the date change. Acknowledging that there remained a possibility of "some failures", Mrs Beckett said that any problems were likely to be localised and short-lived.

The Government's Millennium centre in London would be operational from Dec 31 until Jan 7, staffed by a pool of about 200 officials from Whitehall departments. Ministers would also be on duty in rotation.She said: "The centre will collate information from government departments about any Millennium problems in the sectors for which they have policy responsibility."

For the Tories, Angela Browning received an assurance that contingency plans had been tested in the same way as computer systems. She also praised the hard work done by information technology professionals to safeguard Britain against the Millennium bug.

Tam Dalyell (Lab, Linlithgow) suggested that New Year's Eve would offer burglars a golden opportunity, with householders out celebrating and police off duty. But Mrs Beckett told him that all police leave had been cancelled, as had leave for other emergency services.

The potentially catastrophic effect of the bug on international relations was raised by Brian White (Lab, Milton Keynes North East), who asked about safeguards to ensure that computer failures could not spark a nuclear attack warning. Mrs Beckett said the United States and Russia had not only swapped information in the run-up to Dec 31 but would be exchanging personnel to minimise the chance of any such incident.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), December 17, 1999