The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is being merged with the Department for Business and Trade simply three and a half years after each organisations had been created below the Sunak administration.
Full particulars of recent prime minister Andy Burnham’s plans for the departments are but to emerge. However, the basics of the equipment of presidency change – which additionally contains the return of “digital” to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – had been laid out final evening in Burnham’s cupboard appointments.
Former enterprise secretary Jonathan Reynolds returns to lead an expanded model of the enterprise division, which can be generally known as the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology.
A message on DSIT’s web site confirms “this organisation is changing”. The division referred Civil Service World’s queries about its future to No.10.
When Labour returned to authorities in 2024, one in all its first acts was to announce the switch of digital features – together with the Government Digital Service and the then Central Digital and Data Office – from the Cabinet Office to DSIT. Also included within the transfer was the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence.
No.10 has so-far not specified the place these companies, which at the moment are collectively branded as GDS, will sit below the brand new preparations. CSW has sought clarification, however had not obtained a response on the time of publication.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy was reappointed in yesterday’s reshuffle and is now the one secretary of state to have retained their unique temporary since Labour returned to energy simply over two years in the past.
No.10’s announcement additionally confirmed the rebranding of DCMS because the “Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport” – the name it was known by between July 2017 and February 2023.
While Burnham has not set out how DSIT’s former remit can be cut up between DBIST, DCMS and the Cabinet Office, a potential clue for synthetic intelligence might come within the type of the appointment of Kanishka Narayan as minister of state liable for AI. According to No.10, Narayan’s position will straddle the Cabinet Office and DBIST. He may even attend cupboard.
In phrases of departmental management, DBIST is at the moment with out a everlasting secretary, following the departure of Gareth Davies to take the helm on the Home Office earlier this 12 months. Amanda Brooks is serving as interim perm sec.
Emran Mian is the present perm sec at DSIT and stands out as the apparent selection to lead DBIST.
‘Technology and innovation are not separate sectors of our economy’
In a written ministerial assertion this afternoon, lord privy seal Angela Smith mentioned DSIT’s features can be redistributed to align with the federal government’s “core economic and social agenda, embedded as vital engines of growth exactly where they can have the most direct impact”.
“This move recognises that technology and innovation are not separate sectors of our economy – they are the foundation of all future industry, culture, and public service delivery,” Baroness Smith mentioned.
She added {that a} new AI Taskforce can be established inside the new Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, which can be led by cupboard secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.
“Supported by a prime ministerial adviser on AI, this central team will drive the government’s overall strategy on AI to unlock the opportunities it holds for growth, prosperity and public sector transformation,” she mentioned. “The Cabinet Office will also take the lead on AI adoption across the civil service, reflecting the urgency of delivering that transformation for the benefit of people across the country. To deliver this step change, responsibility for AI strategy, public sector AI adoption and the AI Security Institute will move to the Cabinet Office”
Smith mentioned the strengthened DCMS will achieve duty for digital foundations, digital transformation, digital inclusion and expertise, data resilience and on-line harms. “This provides critical scale and recognises that culture and technology are inseparable drivers of our modern economy, while bringing coherence to the online safety agenda,” she mentioned. “It also emphasises our commitment that bringing together levers to support youth policy online and in real life will build a stronger package of support for young people.”
Smith mentioned DBIST will tackle duty for rising sectors as well as to its new innovation and science briefs. She mentioned the adjustments signify “our global leadership in science and innovation and the continuing role they play in the UK economy” and “will align our science and research base directly with commercial application and job creation”.
Reynolds says adjustments will not be radical
Earlier right now, returning enterprise secretary Reynolds instructed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that DBIST wouldn’t characterize a radical departure from earlier fashions.
“There have been different configurations of the business department,” he mentioned. “I myself have shadowed something which is quite similar to what we decided to do yesterday.”
Reynolds was shadow enterprise secretary from November 2021 to May 2026, bridging the ultimate 14 months of the outdated Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the formation of DBT.
Reynolds insisted that science would “in no way” be a secondary situation in DBIST.
“It will be at the forefront of the business department, working alongside our trade policy consistently with our industrial strategy, our plan for small business, what we’re doing in terms of market-access arrangements with other countries, [and] professional qualifications being recognised,” he mentioned. “Bringing those things together in a more powerful department is, in government terms, a big win for science.”
Reynolds mentioned British science and innovation “is an absolute national asset” and one thing the nation must be pleased with. “The historic challenge has always been how we commercialise that; how we get the benefits of that for our economy,” he mentioned.
Royal Society president Sir Paul Nurse mentioned in a press release that it will be “essential” for science not to be a junior accomplice within the new division.
“We need to see the prime minister and the new secretary of state put their active support behind the full science system,” he mentioned. “That is how we make science deliver across all parts of government and the best way to make science work for everyone.”
This story was up to date at 15:00 on 21 July 2026 to embody additional element from the federal government