Science committee to go back to its old remit
On Monday, the House of Commons will agree changes to its standing orders to create a Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee and a separate Science and Technology Committee.
The former will continue to work of the current Business and Trade Committee, and function as the lead committee for the newly expanded Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) and its associated bodies. This follows the machinery of government changes which saw the closure of DSIT.
Now that its corresponding department is no more, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee will become the Science and Technology Committee, with its official remit covering the Government Office for Science only – a return to the state of affairs before the creation of DSIT in 2023.
The committee, which is chaired by former shadow science minister Chi Onwurah, will hold a hearing on Tuesday about the ramifications of DSIT’s closure.
Cabinet committees
Last week also saw Prime Minister Andy Burnham release an updated list of Cabinet committees, with the total number of committees and sub-committees falling from 12 to seven. These are ministerial groups which take collective decisions that are binding across government, generally chaired by the Prime Minister or Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
One of the Cabinet committees which has been abolished is the digital and technology committee, which the government previously described as responsible for considering science, research and innovation “while also driving decision-making on digital transformation across government.”
This committee had in turn replaced the Science and Technology Cabinet committee, which up until autumn last year was mandated with considering matters related to science and technology “to drive the United Kingdom’s economic growth and national security.”
This means that there is no longer any Cabinet committee with a specific brief to cover science or technology, though BIST Secretary of State Jonathan Reynolds will sit on the National Security Council resilience sub-committee.