Recommendation 9

In the absence of a complete and approved integrated plan, NS&I was unable to provide us with an updated estimate of Programme costs. It had spent £111 million on the Programme by March 2024, but could not give us a newer spend-to-date figure in our December 2025 evidence session, despite telling us it had the financial data to “make the right decisions at the right point”.17 It claimed to have the “routes, mechanisms and people” to deliver the Programme to the plan that it has not yet finalised, but also told us that it had not yet completed a “reset” of the commercial contracts so there is not yet “real solidity” of the milestones and deliverables; this means costs could increase further.18 NS&I agreed that the Programme cost would likely exceed the available budget, and expects to discuss this with the Treasury.19 The Treasury was clear that there would need to be further discussions with Ministers should NS&I require additional budget to that agreed in the spending review.20 This means NS&I could not give us any confidence that it yet has reliable estimates of how much the programme would cost. It could only point to the work in progress on the integrated plan, that might allow it to do so by March 2026.21 12 C&AG’s Report, paras 14 and 3.15 13 Qq 19-20 14 Qq 12, 74-75 15 Qq 12-13; C&AG Report para 10 16 Qq 76-77 17 Qq 18, 56, 79 18 Qq 23-25 19 Qq 13, 25 20 Q 27 21 Q 12 9