Recommendation 19

The Plan’s affordability depends on the Department achieving a number of different types of savings by March 2031. As the NAO reported, these amount to nearly £22 billion, which comprises around £12 billion of ‘management adjustments for realism’, £7 billion of ‘planned cost reductions’ and £2.8 billion of ‘potential efficiencies which project teams have lower confidence in achieving’.42 We asked about the so-called ‘planned cost reductions’, where £4 billion of the £7 billion assumed savings do not have a plan supporting them. The Department told us that it was confident that all the savings would be achieved, and that in setting the overall target the Department attempts to judge the right balance between risk and maximising capability delivery over 10 years.43