Computer problems could occur up to a year before the ''millennium time bomb'' of January 1 2000 and for some time after, industry has been warned.
The Health and Safety Executive said yesterday that if firms were not taking action by the end of this year they might face court proceedings and possibly fines.
Some systems controlling fire alarms, security and lifts may fail as early as January 1 1999, because they used a row of nines to show the end of a file. Other possible failure dates include February 29 2000, since many companies may not anticipate that 2000 is a leap year.
Publishing a free guide for firms on how to cope with the date change, Mr Clive Norris, director of safety policy, said: ''Until the end of this year HSE inspectors will be working with companies to help them get their computers working correctly.
''After that we will be taking safety very seriously and we will start considering enforcement action against those companies that break regulations.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article