Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
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)
The Treasury told us that the lack of transparency from NS&I had made it difficult for the Treasury to understand the reasons for the cost increases, saying it was not always clear whether the funding NS&I received was being used on the Programme or running NS&I. It also said NS&I had been “sluggish” to respond to conditions that the Treasury had set as part of the business case approval.77 NS&I told us that the transformation programme affects its whole business, including all its IT, operations, customer services and products. It claimed it was able to give the information on cost to the NAO, but the NAO report says it had proved “challenging to identify spend to date, and forecast spend for the remainder of the Programme”, and the cost estimates should be “treated with caution”.78
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.