Science committee seeks clarity over DSIT’s fate

House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee chair Chi Onwurah has written to ministers in search of precise information about what will become of the different functions of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) following the department’s closure.

The letter raises a number of questions about new ministerial portfolios, civil service teams, and the duration of the transition to a new machinery of government structure. Onwurah observes that while the initial announcement of the restructure claimed that the department’s component parts would be “redistributed to align with the Government’s core economic and social agenda,” little further information has come to light over the recess period.

The letter is addressed to Louise Haigh, Lisa Nandy, and Jonathan Reynolds, who are heading the three departments to which DSIT’s functions are being reassigned – the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, respectively. Onwurah asks all three to confirm which DSIT teams are moving into their departments, and whether media reports about potential staffing arrangements are indeed accurate.

Onwurah also says that she has “received assurances” that the science committee’s work will continue despite the disappearance of the department which it had a statutory role in scrutinising.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, as it was then known, was formerly a cross-cutting committee looking at matters relating to science and tech. Following the establishment of DSIT in 2023, it became a select committee with explicit responsibility for the department and the Government Office for Science.