Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 13
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)
We asked the chief executive if he was creating a ‘good news’ culture, which the NAO has identified as a factor in why programmes resets may not work, and which can lead to a situation where decisions are not made and disagreements between stakeholders are not resolved. He told us that having a “can-do” attitude meant NS&I staff were committed to its objectives and transformation, which was “invaluable”, and he was pleased to see higher scores on NS&I’s recent annual staff engagement survey.32 But these scores do not give a full view of the lack of progress on the Programme because the survey only covers NS&I employees and not the large number of suppliers working on the Programme, meaning NS&I is missing an external perspective.33 We questioned whether NS&I had taken action to ensure a “good news culture” did not prevail, but NS&I gave us no details, and could only acknowledge the importance of the tone set from the top.34 NS&I conceded there had been occasions when its culture led to staff being overly optimistic about the delivery of the Programme.35
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.