I decided to give myself a birthday present of £100 worth of premium bonds. I started the payment request on the NS&I website, and I have done this several times in the past using my card reader. It's usually fairly straightforward with only one request to use the card reader. This time was different, as it took me to an intermediate site run by a company called ecospend - here is their public sector declaration. https://ecospend.com/public-sector/
This is obviously a foretaste of things to come. It first asked me to use my card reader to create a one time code, and it used that to access my account, and told me my current balance - well I already knew that. Then it took me to a page and asked a load of questions with personal details, and the purpose of the payment. It then went through the normal payment process on the card reader to take the money. Previously I got immediate notification of the transfer in my NS&I account. I did all this over an hour ago, and I still haven't received notification. I phoned Nationwide ( my bank ) to check on the payment, and everything seems to be legitimate. This seems to be the start of a move to a new  payment system, and government surveillance of the way we use our money.

Watch this thread for more details.