Recommendation 19

We pushed NS&I to tell us if it now had the skills and capability it needed. NS&I acknowledged that it had needed to bring in more capability, including in systems integration and at senior levels.50 It also, eventually, recognised that for a Programme “this big and complex, we will not have all the skills”. NS&I said it now has non-executive directors with private sector experience of digital transformation. The Treasury added that appointing non-executive directors (NEDs) was giving it more confidence that costs were being managed by NS&I.51 The Treasury also noted that as this was a complex programme, a systems integrator is “very necessary”.52 This had not been in place from the start, and we noted that not managing systems integration is the cause of problems on other programmes.53