The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has been scrapped, following the appointment of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister on 20 July 2026. One of his first moves since taking office, the new Prime Minister announced the dissolution of DSIT last week, with plans for the Department for Business and Trade to absorb its functions – excluding digital transformation and online harms, which has moved into the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The news comes following the Cabinet Office’s ministerial appointments announcement on Monday, which saw former Business Secretary, and Stalybridge and Hyde MP Jonathan Reynolds, return to the role, and Vale of Glamorgan MP Kanishka Narayan appointed Minister for Artificial Intelligence.
Who Is Jonathan Reynolds?
Reynolds has represented Stalybridge and Hyde since May 2010, having worked for his predecessor, James Purnell (now Chief of Staff in Burnham’s cabinet), after a year at Stockport Council. He first held the business brief from July 2024 to September 2025 while serving under Keir Starmer, then served as Chief Whip until this reshuffle, and now returns to lead the newly combined department in what the Government describes as an expanded role covering business, innovation, science and trade.
During his earlier tenure, he published the government’s Trade Strategy and Modern Industrial Strategy, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London for his work on financial services and UK businesses, according to the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade.
“Business leaders, including the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the new administration but urged a focus on growth, stability and reducing regulatory burdens,” the Financial Times reported on Burnham’s first day in office.
Who Is Kanishka Narayan?
Kanishka Narayan’s role as the UK’s first Minister of State for AI to attend Cabinet sits jointly across the Cabinet Office and the business department. An MP for the Vale of Glamorgan since July 2024, Narayan became Wales’s first ethnic-minority MP on being elected. Before entering politics, he worked at advisory firm Lazard on M&A for startups and corporates, before moving into venture capital, most recently running the European operations of fintech-focused VC firm Clocktower Ventures. He has also launched All Hands On Tech, an initiative aiming to bring 1,000 tech jobs to the Vale of Glamorgan by 2030, alongside mentoring and upskilling support for local small businesses.
Speaking of his All Hands on Tech initiative in an interview with Sifted last year, he said: “If I achieve this, it could add a couple of percentage points in the labour market in the Vale.
“That would be way more impactful than any number of regulatory things I could try and do.”
What Andy Burnham Has Said About SMEs and Business Support
While few leaders would claim to be working against the interests of business, Andy Burnham made a point of underlining his support for businesses and employees in his first speech outside 10 Downing Street. In addition to suggesting his government would represent “a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last forty years: a new political model and a new economic model,” he pledged to “re-industrialise Britain, using public procurement to back British industry”.
Days earlier, on becoming Labour leader, he told the party: “make no mistake, everybody, I will be a pro-business leader of the Labour Party, as I was a pro-business mayor of Greater Manchester,” pointing to “more power to re-industrialise” and “backing local businesses such as the pubs and the shops that bring them to life.” He has also pledged reform of business rates and improved small-business access to public sector contracts. How those pledges translate into relief on the costs SME leaders say matter most will be closely watched by employers and broader society alike. But early signals at least point to suggestions of a change of tact in handling business affairs.
What the Department for Business and Trade Merger Covers
The enlarged department now holds responsibility for business support, trade policy, science and innovation funding and AI adoption all under one Secretary of State. That means trade guidance, innovation funding queries and questions about AI-adoption support now sit inside the same structure, even if the exact contact points within it are still being confirmed.
Where DSIT’s Responsibilities Have Gone
DSIT was created in 2023 to bring science, technology and innovation policy together in one department, and it has overseen initiatives including the AI Opportunities Action Plan and investment in sovereign AI compute capacity.
Its dissolution splits that legacy in two directions: science, innovation and AI-adoption policy move into the business department with Reynolds, while digital transformation and online harms move to Culture, Media and Sport. Patrick Vallance, DSIT’s science minister, and Liz Kendall, its secretary of state, have both left their roles as part of the change.
What Changes for UK Businesses Now
For most SMEs, the rules they already follow won’t change, but where those rules, and the support that comes with them, are administered from could. A business applying for innovation funding, seeking export or trade guidance, or trying to understand what government support exists for adopting AI tools, for example, will now be dealing with the same department for all three, rather than navigating between two. That consolidation is new enough that some guidance pages, contact routes and application processes may take time to catch up with the structural change.
