| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mrs. Beckett: I must say to the hon. Gentleman--who follows these matters closely--that I think he is being both unwise and unfair. I did not set out to castigate:
the hon. Member for Christchurch made a very silly attempt to pretend that anything that goes wrong will be the Government's fault. That is nonsense.
Mr. Chope: It is called responsibility.
Mrs. Beckett: That is stupid, and the hon. Gentleman knows it--at least, I think he does.
I am perfectly prepared to recognise that the previous Government did some work--but, I fear, not nearly enough, given that we did not come to power until May 1997. I am perfectly happy to deal with this issue on a non-partisan basis. Few people recognise the scale and the nature of the problems and the extent of the work that will be required to tackle them from the outset. I do not blame the previous Government for the fact that we inherited a very difficult situation. However, I certainly will not accept blame on behalf of this Government because of the Conservatives' neglect at the end of the 1990s. Opposition Members should stop being unwise. Rather than making silly partisan points, they should concentrate on what we can do together to ensure that there are no problems. Our constituents will face difficulties if there are problems.
The hon. Gentleman also made a point that has been repeatedly made and corrected. It is rubbish to say that nothing was done for six months. We did not renew the contract of TaskForce 2000--if I remember correctly, the previous Government gave it about £750,000--but we set up a new body to proceed with the campaign of awareness on which TaskForce 2000 had been set to work. We gave the body a budget of more than £18 million at the outset, and that has been increased. The notion that we fell down on the work plainly does not remotely stand up to the evidence.
I have not seen the recommendation to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and I am certainly happy to consider it. He is right to say that we are all anxious about the standard of work being done, and I shall consider the report carefully. Although it is not for the Government to second-guess standards in such matters, we should certainly ensure that good-quality advice is available. We have done that, and we are doing everything possible to publicise that information, and will continue to do so.
I urge Conservative Members to work with the Government on a problem that is, strictly speaking, nobody's fault, and certainly not the fault of any political party. I am happy to work on that basis, and I hope that they are too.
Mr. Derek Twigg (Halton):
Is my right hon. Friend aware of the concern about millennium compliance of people on benefits in my constituency? She made a point about the Employment Service. Will she confirm that its business-critical systems are finished? Does she agree that they are important as a delivery agent for benefits?
The Opposition tried to put the blame on the Government, when they should be taking the blame. In the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, we heard a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, who said that a system that was introduced under the previous Government as late as April 1997 was not millennium compliant. Is that not an indictment of the total hypocrisy that we have heard from Conservative Members today?
Mrs. Beckett:
My hon. Friend is right: the Conservative party's record does not bear examination of
Mr. William Thompson (West Tyrone):
When the right hon. Lady made her statement, no mention was made of Northern Ireland, particularly when referring to the police service, the fire service, the national health service and local government in England, Wales and Scotland. As the millennium bug is as likely to strike Northern Ireland as the rest of the United Kingdom, will the right hon. Lady tell us the position on those important services in Northern Ireland?
Mrs. Beckett:
I singled out for mention those areas that gave us concern and those areas that have done especially well. The great mass of Departments that come between those two groups are those where work is being done, and we are assured--and the evidence suggests--that they will be compliant within the time scale set by the Government.
In my previous statement, I singled out as areas of concern the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland. Both had problems with their embedded chip programmes, and the Department of Finance and Personnel also had a late completion date for its critical IT systems. Both now tell us that they expect to complete their correction work on business-critical embedded systems in June, and the completion date for the other critical IT systems has also been brought forward to June.
Work is being undertaken and monitored, and we have not had flagged up as an area of anxiety the particular services that cause the hon. Gentleman concern.
Dr. George Turner (North-West Norfolk):
The House heard reference to league tables. Does my right hon. Friend accept that the only league tables on this issue that will have any validity are those that will be published in the new millennium, revealing what problems we encounter? Does she further accept that there will be problems because there is not one millennium bug, but a set of problems, and it would be a waste of resources if there were no problems? We must ensure that certain consequences do not occur. We must make sure that there is no loss of human life or breakdown in society's main functions. It is therefore very important that those who have responsibility for acting in time realise now that they will be held to account when the league tables are published in the new millennium. Although there will be problems, we want to be certain that they are minor and unimportant.
Mrs. Beckett:
My hon. Friend is entirely right. Indeed, I notice that someone from the Institute of Grocery Distribution said that of course there would be problems, but
My hon. Friend is absolutely right: from the outset, the top priority not just of the Government but of all those who deal with public services has been public safety and avoidance of material disruption, including, of course, issues such as loss of life. He is also right in saying that, in the ordinary course of events, particularly during the winter, we all expect various small-scale difficulties and breakdowns. It is important that we all do our utmost to ensure that such difficulties are no worse over this Christmas and new year than they have been over any other.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York):
My contention is that the right hon. Lady is not doing enough in the private sector, especially to combat the lack of transport insurance for travel on 1 January 2000. She is aware that the private sector is failing to insure air and rail travel on that day. I urge her not to absolve the Government of all responsibility, but to act, not just so that passengers can travel but so that facilities to travel by air and rail are provided.
Mrs. Beckett:
I am not in the business of trying to walk on water; I cannot say that, of course, there will be facilities for air and rail travel. I certainly assure the hon. Lady that we, together with all relevant regulators, companies and bodies, are doing everything that we can to ensure that whatever facilities are made available are safe.
I know that the hon. Lady has concerns about insurers; she and I have corresponded about that matter. There is a mixed picture. Insurers are prepared to cover eventualities that people cannot foresee, but some policies in some companies have exclusions. I know that my civil servants will curse me for saying this, but I would be very happy if the hon. Lady encouraged those who have contacted her to contact us. It slightly surprises me that she has raised the issues with me as a matter of major concern to those in the travel industry, but those concerned have not raised them with us or, indeed, with Action 2000. If there are widespread concerns, we would obviously be very happy to hear about them and do anything that we could to attempt to address them.
Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire):
Has the right hon. Lady received a report from her hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Privy Council Office, who visited Addenbrooke's hospital in my constituency today, where I hope he will have found a model of activity in respect of millennium compliance? I think that he visited the Rosie maternity hospital as well--where, for example, there are contingent risks of unanticipated demand associated with the millennium. Perhaps such risks should be anticipated. In the next few weeks, the hospital will have had to establish the staffing, pay and associated costs that will be involved. It would take the view that, rather than a Dutch auction between public services on available staff compensation, some Government guidance would be useful.
"You have to separate it out between the millennium party effect and the bug effect."
That was a very pertinent comment.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |