Trading Statement

NCC Group PLC
26 October 2005


NCC GROUP - TRADING UPDATE

NCC Group plc, the Manchester-based leading independent provider of IT
assurance, security and consultancy services, is publishing today a trading
update covering the period to 26 October 2005.

The Group's overall trading performance continues to be in line with the
statement published at the AGM on 21 September 2005.  The statement indicated
that for the current year ending 31 May 2006, a greater contribution to profits
was expected in the second half of the year than in the equivalent period in
2005.  Accordingly, a higher percentage of profits is expected to come from
Escrow and Testing Solutions rather than from Consultancy.  The Board now
expects the H1:H2 split will be nearer to 40%:60% as compared to 44%:56% in the
previous year.

The performance of the Group's core division, Escrow Solutions, continues to be
excellent.  Renewals are now forecast to be £6.8m for the year as termination
rates continue to be well controlled.  The annual price increase has been
implemented, with prices for the main product lines increased by around 8% and
dual depositing instituted to further improve the value of the proposition.  The
average number of agreements per customer has increased to over 1.8 and there
are more than 11,400 beneficiaries to over 6,200 agreements.

The early signs from Germany are encouraging and the market there appears,
despite the low level of awareness of Escrow, to show good potential.  Gartner
Consulting has assessed that the addressable market in Germany alone is £88m -
£102m which is greater than that of the UK which was assessed to be £65m - £85m.
Investment in the infrastructure of the business is in progress and the Group
will be actively selling and account managing, in the same way as it does in the
UK, by New Year.

Testing Solutions has performed very well in the first part of the year.  Each
of its business areas are functioning well and its order books, at £1.7m, are
ahead of the Board's expectations, with the further recruitment of high calibre
staff being the next priority to address.  Growth has come from an increased
demand for high quality independent testing to provide assurance over security
and performance issues, as well as from an increase in the take up rate from
Escrow customers for the source code verification services.

The consultancy marketplace continues to be difficult with the Group's IT
Consultancy business finding the market slow as both decisions and project
initiations slip. The order book stands at £1.4m.  The market for the provision
of Information Security Consultancy has proved particularly difficult, with a
significant lack of awareness in the market of the merits and values of both its
service offerings and its independence.  To that end, the provision of
Information Security Consultancy services has been reduced and the small
business unit will be recombined within the IT Consultancy.

The Group's cash position has continued to grow and NCC Group currently has a
net cash position of £0.3m.

The Group expects to report its interim figures for the six months to 30
November 2005 in mid-January 2006 and will provide IFRS information shortly
before that date.

                                                                 26 October 2005



Enquiries:

NCC Group  (www.nccgroup.com)                                      0161 209 5432
    Rob Cotton, Chief Executive
    Paul Edwards, Group Finance Director

College Hill
    Adrian Duffield/Clare Warren                              020 7457 2815/2055


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