Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 9
67th Report - NS&I’s transformation programme
Published 13 Feb 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee NS&I’s transformation programme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, 67th Report - NS&I’s transformation programme (HC 1237), 13 February 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 13 April 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the recommendations in the report, and sets target implementation dates between June and Autumn 2026.
- On the integrated plan, the government agrees that NS&I should prepare a realistic plan. NS&I is developing costed options, which will form the basis of a revised Full Business Case in the second quarter of 2026-27, "subject to Treasury and Ministerial process timings".
- NS&I will write to the Committee "within six months" setting out the integrated plan, including timelines and a revised estimated cost, and will provide a written update on its risk management framework "by June 2026".
- On culture, a business-wide programme of cultural change activity will be developed, with an initial plan to go to the Board and the Treasury in early Summer 2026 for "rolling implementation over the coming 12-18 months".
- The Treasury says it will evaluate NS&I's agreed plan through a full Treasury Approval Panel process and will write to the Committee in the Autumn on lessons learned from its oversight.