One of Andy Burnham’s first acts as new UK prime minister has been to abolish the federal government’s devoted science department. Responsibility for the science and innovation portfolio now lies with the enterprise department, following the appointment of key members of Burnham’s cabinet.
The change sees the departure of Liz Kendall, who had served as science secretary since September 2025, and Patrick Vallance, who introduced his resignation as science minister ‘for personal reasons’ on Monday. Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds has been appointed as secretary of state for enterprise, innovation, science and commerce, having beforehand served as enterprise and commerce secretary from July 2024 till September 2025.
During a interval of instability in UK politics that has seen seven totally different prime ministers in a decade, duty for science has repeatedly shifted between varied ministers and authorities departments. Over the final 10 years, seven ministers and three secretaries of state have overseen UK science coverage.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) was established by Rishi Sunak in 2023, bringing with it a cabinet-level function for a science secretary. Many within the science group lauded that transfer, believing that it mirrored the significance of the analysis sector to the UK economic system and the necessity for secure management. Prior to that, duty for science had sat with the enterprise department after the closure of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in 2009. DSIT had confronted criticism over the notion that it was overly focused on AI on the expense of the broader R&D ecosystem. Burnham has now appointed Kanishka Narayan as the UK authorities’s first devoted minister for AI, sitting inside the enterprise department.
According to Paul Nightingale, an knowledgeable on science coverage primarily based on the University of Sussex, Burnham’s choice to return duty for science coverage to the enterprise department brings each execs and cons. ‘It’s yet one more reorganisation after an extended interval of coverage turmoil, which will increase uncertainty for buyers and trade. There is an pressing want for a political answer to stabilise coverage and coverage making round science,’ he notes.
‘On a more positive note, science does need to align more with industry and the integration might, if Andy Burnham is lucky, go some way to repairing the policy mistakes of the 1980s where a hands-off approach to the translation of research into productivity was tried and repeatedly failed,’ provides Nightingale. ‘Hopefully a more realistic approach can be found.’
Big sneakers to fill
The departure of Vallance, specifically, has been met with apprehension by some members of the science group. Vallance beforehand headed up R&D at GlaxoSmithKline earlier than serving as the federal government chief scientific adviser from 2018 till 2023, enjoying a distinguished function in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Richard Torbett, chief govt of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, stated that Vallance had been ‘instrumental’ in enhancing the UK’s status as a life sciences vacation spot, including that ‘he leaves big shoes to fill’.
The Royal Society president Paul Nurse added that he was ‘very sorry’ to see Vallance step down. ‘Patrick Vallance has been an outstanding voice for science in government,’ he stated. ‘His experience from both the lab and business gave him great insight on how best to support science and ensure it led to the public good, including promoting economic growth.’
Tanya Sheridan, head of coverage and proof on the Royal Society of Chemistry, stated that Vallance had been ‘an excellent champion for science over the last two years’. ‘With the science and technology brief moving back into a government department alongside business and trade, it is essential that the central importance of science continues to be recognised,’ she added. ‘We must continue to nurture UK science so we can solve global problems, elevate our internationally recognised science research strengths, boost the UK economy and deliver the skilled workforce the country needs.’
According to Nightingale, Vallance’s alternative’s key duties can be ‘ensuring UKRI is aligned with government policy, especially around the productivity and growth agendas, with the added complexity of dealing with the regional inequality issues the UK faces’.
‘Hopefully they have the political will to ensure that is implemented effectively, which will generate political opposition as it will produce winners and losers,’ he provides. ‘The crisis in the UK university system is looking acute in places, and that will just add to the complexity as there are no resources to bail out failing institutions, but arguing for a more nuanced approach to international students would be helpful.’
The caption of the photograph of Patrick Vallance was corrected on 21 July 2026. Vallance was previously head of R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, not CEO.