Recommendation 20

NS&I said it was now developing a plan for workforce management in a more structured way, but did not provide details.54 It had identified the need to transfer knowledge from consultants to permanent staff.55 Its recruitment 45 Q 63 46 C&AG’s Report, paras 8, 13 47 Q 67; C&AG’s Report, para 3.10 48 Qq 67, 69 49 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.10 and 3.11 50 Qq 22, 35 51 Qq 37-38 52 Q 70 53 Q 73; C&AG’s Report, paras 15 and 21 54 Q 22 55 Q 36 13 increased the NS&I headcount from around 200 to over 350 people.56 This includes increasing its commercial team fourfold.57 It said this increase was temporary, and that its target was 270 people.58 NS&I tried to claim that the additional costs of these extra people were built into the budget, but we were sceptical of this given that NS&I’s latest cost estimate is from 2024.59 We noted that adding more skilled capability would increase costs; while NS&I initially claimed this was accounted for in its estimates, it later acknowledged that the longer timeframe would mean that costs would increase.60