Training: BCS Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has been abolished in a government restructure under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, with its functions redistributed across the Cabinet Office, a renamed business department and a strengthened Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Baroness Smith of Basildon, Lord Privy Seal, set out the changes in a written ministerial statement made on the Prime Minister's behalf on 21 July, describing the reorganisation as "fundamentally rewiring the state". She said DSIT's functions would be "redistributed to align with our core economic and social agenda", recognising that "technology and innovation are not separate sectors of our economy".
Under the changes, a strengthened DCMS - regaining "Digital" in its name - takes on "digital foundations, digital transformation, digital inclusion and skills, information resilience and online harms", alongside responsibility for digital identity policy, which transfers from the Cabinet Office.
Burnham has separately announced that plans for a national digital ID programme will be scrapped. Responsibility for AI strategy, public sector AI adoption and the AI Security Institute moves to the Cabinet Office, supported by a new AI Taskforce within an Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Department for Business and Trade is renamed the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), taking the science and innovation portfolio.
There was no statement on where responsibility for data protection policy or sponsorship of the Information Commissioner's Office will sit. Both were previously the responsibility of DSIT, which has been the ICO's sponsoring department since February 2023, when the role transferred from DCMS, and DSIT ministers have led on secondary legislation and commencement under the DUAA. The Information Commissioner regulates under the Data Protection Act 2018, UK GDPR and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the sponsorship arrangement is governed by a management agreement between the regulator and its sponsor department.
The abolition means there is no longer a dedicated technology secretary, with Liz Kendall dismissed by the new Prime Minister. Kanishka Narayan continues as Minister for Artificial Intelligence, serving jointly across the Cabinet Office and DBIST, and will attend Cabinet.
Narayan said the invitation to attend Cabinet was a "sign of [the Prime Minister's] deep commitment to AI's importance", writing on X that AI is "likely the most significant technology in human history" while acknowledging the public's concerns "for jobs, for the pace of change".
The restructure has drawn criticism from the technology sector. techUK chief executive Julian David and Startup Coalition executive director Dom Hallas wrote to Burnham before the announcement warning the change would be "the wrong change at the wrong time". Hallas said after the announcement that the priority now should be spreading AI adoption through government, telling the BBC the abolition was "clearly a bad thing" but that Narayan was well placed to compensate for it in Cabinet.
The changes take practical effect from 21 July 2026 where possible.
