Independent scrutiny of new infrastructure body will initially come from ex-NIC commissioners, says minister

The government’s new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will be subject to independent scrutiny, the minister responsible has confirmed.

NISTA was formally launched earlier this week, folding together the previously existing Infrastructure and Projects Authority and National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) into a single unit.

While technically reporting to the Treasury, the NIC was a source of independent and sometimes critical advice to the government. 

Under the new system, NISTA will be responsible to both the Cabinet Office and Treasury, but will be based in the latter and report to Darren Jones, chief secretary of the Treasury.

Responding to the launch of NISTA earlier this week, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) recommended that an “independent voice” be a key part of the new body’s structure to ensure decision makers do not “shy away from difficult questions”.

Jones said yesterday that NIC’s independence had meant that it could “say whatever it wanted” but that “the downside of that was that it then didn’t really form part of the government decision making process, which is why the delivery wasn’t really optimal”.

But he stressed that some external scrutiny will remain. 

“We also agree with the ICE that we do want that challenge to the civil service and so we have a board of external people that sit on the board of NISTA and will provide challenge to the new CEO and the officials working in that team,” he said.

“At the moment, we’ve rolled over the commissioners from the National Infrastructure Commission, so they’ve automatically become that external advisory panel.

“Later in the year, once we’ve kind of got everything up and running, working with the new CEO, [we] will set out a process for how that might change going forward.”

NISTA is currently being led by Jean-Christophe Gray, with the permanent chief executive position being advertised at the start of the year with a salary of £200,000 a year.

Jones said it was unlikely that a new board would be appointed by the end of the year but that it could be in place by early 2026.

The minister, who is Rachel Reeves’ deputy in the Treasury, also said NISTA would take over the NIC’s five-yearly National Infrastructure Assessments, but that they will be “internal assessments as opposed to independently published assessments of an independent body”.

He added that NISTA would not have a role in the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project consenting process, which will continue to be managed through the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Planning Inspectorate.