To ask the Secretary of State for Wales for what reason no external assessment has been made of the plans of his Department for millennium compliance. [78461]

Independent assessment of the Welsh Office's Year 2000 programme is being undertaken by the Department's Internal Audit Service, who report separately to the Permanent Secretary from the staff responsible for implementing the compliance programme.The content of the programme was audited at inception and progress against established activities is reviewed on a regular basis. Internal Audit are free to recommend changes to the programme as they see fit.Duplicating this effort by employing external assessors is unnecessary and would add additional costs to the compliance programme.