We asked the Department what it was doing to mitigate this risk. It told us that it was concerned that the formation of the new Department from its predecessor departments had placed additional pressures on its core digital team and that the digital team was reviewing its priorities. The Department plans to assess whether it needs to contract in additional digital support for the transformation programme and whether it will need to delay the programme.32 It said that contracting in digital support was challenging as there was a ‘small pool’ of candidates to hire from and candidates needed security clearance.33 The Department subsequently wrote to us about the level of vacancies in the former Department for International Trade’s digital team. As of 13 March 2023, 105 out of 371 roles (28%) were unfilled.34 29 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.16–2.17 30 Qq 60–61 31 Qq 86, 89; (for example) Committee of Public Accounts, The Defence digital strategy, Thirty-Sixth Report of Session 2022–23. HC 727, 3 February 2023 32 Q 86 33 Q 88 34 Letter to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from Gareth Davies, DBT Permanent Secretary, 20 March 2023 Supporting investment into the UK 13 2 Promoting investment across the UK Driving local growth