9. YEAR 2000 READINESS DISCLOSURE Millennium Programme Reuters established its Millennium Programme in 1996 to address the issues arising as a result of the change of millennium and the fact that the year 2000 is also a leap year. The first goal of the Programme was achieved when Reuters moved into the year 2000 without any significant problems. It was not necessary to invoke any of Reuters Millennium continuity plans over this period. The Millennium Programme involved the renovation of over 2,000 of Reuters proprietary software applications. More than 27,000 applications that run on Reuters production systems and over 350,000 applications on client site key stations globally were updated with millennium versions.

	Year 2000 leap year Algorithms within some computer programmes may not detect that the year 2000 is a leap year. Reuters Millennium Programme established procedures, including reviewing software code and testing computer systems, which would address both the millennium transition and the year 2000 leap year. To manage this risk, Reuters will re-establish its millennium command centres with 24 hour staffing which were deployed over the millennium transition period. Reuters will also be prepared to invoke its millennium business continuity plans should these prove necessary. Incorrect processing of dates surrounding the year 2000 leap year, either by Reuters proprietary computer systems or those of third parties, represents a residual business risk to Reuters. Expenditure for 2000 is budgeted at approximately £4 million.

	Millennium Programme costs
	Details of the costs incurred in 1999 are set out below:
Costs £m 1999 1998 Internal effort Development/testing 7 10 Implementation 10 14 External effort Development/testing 12 18 Implementation 13 13 Total 42 55
	Expenditure for 1999 of £42 million compares with the budget of £28 million reported in February 1999. The increase principally reflected additional expenditure on training, enhanced staff coverage over the millennium weekend and investment in continuity planning at Instinet. Incremental capital expenditure arising as a direct result of the programme was £8 million in 1999. No estimation of the cost of assets replaced in the normal business cycle has been made. Internal development effort in 1999 of £7 million represented 4% of total group development expenditure. The £10 million of implementation activity represented 5% of client site activity. Accordingly, Reuters believes that the Millennium Programme has not resulted in any material deferrals of product developments or decreases in service quality at client sites. We do not expect to incur any significant incremental external costs in 2000.