Having the right people in place to manage suppliers is essential to ensure programme progress and to hold suppliers to account. However, many of the Department’s programmes were reliant on temporary contractors to fill these roles, especially in the Department’s digital projects and programmes. In two of these—New Style of IT (Deployed) and Morpheus—temporary contractors made up 79% and 58% of posts respectively.49 Under the Department’s previous information strategy, it took on more responsibility for the direct management of contractors, but for the three digital programmes the NAO examined, the Department has failed to recruit people with the right skills and experience to do this effectively.50 The Department told us that ensuring the right skills available to programmes is a challenge shared across government as well as among suppliers. The Department envisages recruiting around 200 additional digital specialists to boost its capability in these areas.51