Millennium mayhem has begun...

Everyone has heard of the crisis that is affecting hundreds of would-be holidaymakers and causing giant queues outside passport offices all over the country.

What is not so well known is that the passport crisis, according to Taskforce 2000, is a direct result of millennium bug remediation work.

Taskforce 2000, the independent millennium watchdog, believe that late implementation of the passport issuing system, PASS, in conjunction with the introduction of Government regulations concerning 16 year olds has caused major disruption.

The millennium experts have consistently warned that such a combination of events could be typical of Year 2000 related problems. A paper released earlier this year by Taskforce 2000 and the National Computing Centre predicted that early signs of breakdown were likely to be visible from the middle of the year.
Commenting on the passport crisis Robin Guenier, executive director of Taskforce 2000 said, "The fact that the Passport Office has to replace its non-compliant systems under the pressure of time and additional requirements has caused chaos."

Guenier blames the Government for the additional pressures added to the already hectic task of implementing millennium compliant systems.

He warns "Any part of the public sector could suffer the same fate. The Government must learn this lesson; it must remove the burden of additional regulation whilst providing the public sector with resources and the expertise to fix the Year 2000 problem. Further chaos awaits if it fails."