Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80
- 99)
WEDNESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 1999
MR DAVID
ROWLANDS, MR
ROY GRIFFINS
AND MR
DAVID COOKE
Mr Donohoe
80. That depends surely on the weather at the
time?
(Mr Cooke) No. With respect, if we are not satisfied
about its millennium compliance—but in any case if the port
is not operating commercially—it will be directed to an
anchorage area and it will be told to stop there.
81. In a storm?
(Mr Cooke) Well, there are anchorages which are used
in foul weather conditions, so I think that is catered for. But
the vessel will be held there until we are satisfied about its
compliance.
Chairman
82. Why are these ports remaining closed, however
we define closure? Why has it been decided to restrict access
to these ports? You still have not told me how many there are.
(Mr Cooke) All our largest ports, certainly all the
largest 50.
83. Fifty around the coast of the United Kingdom
will have restricted access?
(Mr Cooke) They will have restricted operational activity,
indeed there may be no commercial operational activity.
84. Why was that decision taken?
(Mr Cooke) The decisions are taken by the ports but
it is characteristic of every New Year holiday period, and has
been in the past, that the ports—
85. Fifty major ports decide to do the same
thing because everybody has gone off on a binge?
(Mr Cooke) Well, that is traditional. The restrictions
do not necessarily last long.
86. Just long enough for everybody to sober
up.
(Mr Cooke) Maybe a couple of hours either side of
midnight, but some close down for much longer periods and they
do. Some will not open until 2 January, one or two until 4 January.
87. And you are telling us this is traditional?
It always happens in 50 major ports?
(Mr Cooke) It does not always happen in all of them,
but in many of them it does. Certainly traffic is at a reduced
level over New Year periods. That is so. There is not the demand
for activity over the New Year period which there is during the
rest of the year. That I can assure you, Chairman, has happened.
There may be some additional restrictions this year. I do not
think they are very significant, but of course it is also a longer
holiday period this year.
Mr Donohoe
88. In terms of the Maritime and Coastguard
Agency itself and their preparations for the millennium, how far
on are they? Are they now complete?
(Mr Rowlands) In terms of the Coastguard's own systems,
there has only been one problem system which is ADAS, which is
a message handling and logging system which was not Y2K compliant.
Chairman
89. It is, however, quite an important system.
(Mr Rowlands) Which is why it has been completely
replaced. The replacement system has been rolled out, installed,
tested and working in all 21 maritime rescue centres. It now has
in place a full set of Business Continuity Plans et cetera and
that is why it has been declared blue in terms of the overall
infrastructure traffic light system. Those plans are in part a
reflection of the plans which are always in place for the Coastguard,
for example, to deal with unexpected eventualities. All coastguard
stations have auxiliary power generators with several days' fuel
supply. Those long-standing plans have been supplemented with
arrangements to rely, for example, on radio to call out the Royal
National Lifeboat Institute rather than to rely on normal telecommunications
systems, not because it is expected that BT or Cable & Wireless
will break down, merely to guard against that eventuality.
Chairman: I have some questions down this week
which may give us some answers to those questions.
Mr Forsythe
90. I see in October of this year the National
Infrastructure Forum said that seventeen out of 10,000 organisations
assessed were not categorised as completely blue. Two of them
were Ulster Bus and City Bus. Could you tell me what the problem
was with them? It is the same organisation, I think.
(Mr Rowlands) I have to confess I do not know what
the problem was and that is because it is not my departmental
responsibility, it is a Northern Ireland Government responsibility.
91. That was my second question. Who is responsible
for this matter in Northern Ireland?
(Mr Rowlands) I believe it is DoE Northern Ireland
but I would need to check that. Can I come back to you on that?
That was the position at the October National Infrastructure Forum—
92. Yes, I understand things have changed.
(Mr Rowlands) It has moved on to the point where,
as part of the overall assessment, they too must have been declared
blue.
93. How widespread is the use of traffic control
equipment which does not require Statutory Type Approval by the
Highways Agency?
(Mr Rowlands) It is widespread in the sense that at
local authority level in England, for example, there will be traffic
control systems which are not type approved but have been built
especially for, say, a particular city and they will be effectively
one-off systems. Because you cannot rely on Highways Authority
Type Approval, it does not apply to them, they have all had to
be looked at individually as part of, for England, the local authority's
own programme to look at millennium compliance across the piece,
not just the road traffic control systems but everything else
from old folks' homes through to payments of one kind or another
to citizens. That local authority programme for England, including
local authority roads, has been overseen by the Government Offices
and supported by the Audit Commission. Although I think it is
fair to say that some local authorities in England certainly were
a bit slow in getting off the ground, they have gone on to the
point where as part of the overall assessment the Department and
Government Offices and the Audit Commission are now satisfied
with the position at local authority level.
94. What plans have you in place to handle that
sort of thing if something goes wrong?
(Mr Rowlands) With traffic control systems, for example,
on the roads?
95. If the system is not working, it there is
a failure.
(Mr Rowlands) What will happen if something goes wrong,
whether it is on local roads or whether it is on one of the roads
which my Department is responsible for with traffic control systems,
is not that the traffic lights will all fail and they will just
be blank, what you will lose is the optimisation where you have
got a system of traffic lights working together. If there is a
failure it is that optimisation that you will lose rather than
there are no traffic lights at all. Clearly, depending on the
traffic flows at the time, that could lead to a degree of dislocation
or congestion that you would not have expected. If any of these
systems do fail because of the date change then clearly they will
fail, I guess, straight away after midnight on 1 January, so they
are going to fail at a point when the traffic that they are handling
is very low and arguably will not return to normal levels until
4 January which is when people will be going back to work. If
there are some failures they will be non-optimal in terms of handling
traffic. I think the expectation is that there will be at least
several days in which to take remedial action should there be
failures before traffic gets back to normal levels.
Chairman
96. Can I ask about the Underground. Are there
any plans in place in case anything goes wrong with the London
Underground system?
(Mr Rowlands) Yes, there are. There are plans both
for the Underground itself and there has been pan-London planning
under the steering group which one of our ministers, Nick Raynsford,
has been chairing for London itself, so that there are interlocking
plans which are not just for the Underground and not just for
the railway but they each relate with each other. Those plans
have been tested, involving people like the British Transport
Police and the Metropolitan Police, to make sure that the Underground
and the railway, and indeed I suppose the buses and DLR for example,
are all planning for any eventuality, including an eventuality
which puts serious strain on the system.
97. So they have thought about the fact that
the whole thing might collapse?
(Mr Rowlands) Yes. There is no expectation that the
whole thing might collapse.
98. One never expects these things, Mr Rowlands,
but they sometimes happen. Can you tell us if there has been an
independent assessment of Manchester Metrolink's preparations?
(Mr Rowlands) I believe there has been. From what
I understand, Metrolink might have been a little bit slower than
some in getting to grips with the millennium problem. The last
of the non-compliant systems, which was not a safety critical
system, has been remediated and the Government Office for the
North West, with the assistance of independent consultants, has
now said they are satisfied with the Metrolink system.
99. That is very recent, is it not?
(Mr Rowlands) Yes.
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