Recommendation 5

NS&I’s governance structures still do not have the performance metrics and information needed to hold the Programme to account. It is difficult to establish the cost of the Programme from the information provided by NS&I. The Treasury told us that, outside the times where it was being asked to approve a formal business case, it found it challenging to understand the cost and progress being made by the Programme. The NS&I witnesses could not tell us how much had been spent on the Programme to date, which is deeply concerning. NS&I said it had improved its financial reporting and had ‘the right data’, but was finding it challenging to take the data from its system and to ‘present’ it. NS&I’s annual report and accounts state that it is meeting its overarching corporate metrics, including the important measure of how much finance it raises for government; but those metrics do not cover Programme progress. There are risks to NS&I’s whole business—and especially to customers—if the Programme is unsuccessful, and NS&I needs to show greater transparency in how the Programme is progressing. 5 recommendation NS&I should set out how it will amend its overall reporting, both internally and externally, to include additional metrics around the Programme including its cost and progress.