Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 20
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)
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
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.