Action 2000: UK ready for millennium

Jane Wakefield ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 17 Dec 1999 12:41 GMT

Action 2000 issued its last pre-Millennium Bug statement Thursday, and the message is don't panic, there will be no problems.

The government's bug-busting taskforce has been criticised during the year for not doing enough to combat the computer glitch, and is keen to reassure the public that essential services and businesses are now bug-compliant. "The risks of anything catastrophic happening are infinitesimal," said Action 2000 chairman Don Cruickshank. "With many organisations having higher staffing levels than usual over New Year's Eve, there may be less disruption than usual," he said.

Cruickshank admits that fixing the problem has not been cheap. UK businesses are estimated to have spent around £20bn on bug programmes and the government has paid out £0.5bn to check its own systems. Cruickshank admits that a large amount of this was "wasted expenditure" because many organisations left bug plans until the last minute.

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