The bill that would have forced companies to declare the progress they have made towards Year 2000 compliance fell in the House of Commons on Friday. UK junior trade and industry minister Ian Taylor, arguing that the bill would impose unwanted burdens on business, effectively killed the measure by ensuring that he was still talking when time ran out at the end of a brief debate. Taylor acknowledged the risk that, unless properly programmed, computers would be at a loss when they encountered 00 as a year but said the right approach was to make firms aware of the gravity of the issue rather than to impose new legislation – Morgan Stanley & Co was spending 55m British pounds and employing an extra 200 to tackle the issue, the minister declared.
