Your guide to the department's cast of ministerial characters, and what’s in their in-trays
The Department for Business and Trade – like its predecessor organisations – has always had an important role in aiding the nation’s prosperity. However, new prime minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to make growing the economy the first of his five core missions in government elevates DBT’s position considerably.
DBT was created by the Sunak administration in February last year in a machinery of government change that brought together the rump of the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with the entirety of the Department for International Trade.
Its work includes supporting businesses both domestically and internationally, helping overseas businesses locate in the UK, and capitalising on post-Brexit freedoms – including through reaching new trade agreements with non-EU nations.
DBT oversees a range of regulatory functions, including delivering a “pro-enterprise” regulatory system. It is also responsible for the Post Office, and therefore the lead department for dealing with fallout from the Horizon scandal.
In 2023-24, the department had a budget of £4.9bn. As of March, its headcount excluding agencies was 5,485. Adding on the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, Companies House and the Insolvency Service takes staff numbers up to 9,610.
Jonathan Reynolds, MP for the Greater Manchester seat of Stalybridge and Hyde, was appointed business secretary – and president of the Board of Trade – on 5 July. Unlike his colleague Douglas Alexander, who was a cabinet member in the Blair/Brown era and is now one of DBT’s ministers of state, this is Reynolds’s first government role. However, he was previously a political assistant to his own constituency’s former MP James Purnell, so the cut and thrust of ministerial life won’t be totally unfamiliar.
Unlike his colleague Douglas Alexander, who was a cabinet member in the Blair/Brown era, this is Reynolds’s first government role
Although born in Sunderland, Reynolds’s identification with Manchester runs deep. In May 2017 he had a bee – the Victorian symbol of the city – tattooed on his wrist to show solidarity for the victims of the Manchester bombing. He is married to Claire Johnston and has four children, one of whom is autistic. He is also a member of the USDAW and Unite unions, and his hobbies are football, history and music.
Addressing staff at DBT’s Old Admiralty Building headquarters following his appointment to the cabinet, Reynolds said the department could “deliver more for the UK than it has ever had the chance to do before” under the new Labour government.
“No government can deliver for working people unless we are creating high-quality jobs that fit with people’s lives,” he said. “And that means growing the economy, and ensuring the benefits of that are shared widely.”
Working alongside Reynolds and Alexander will be minister of state for industry (and former civil servant) Sarah Jones and junior ministers Justin Madders, Gareth Thomas and Baroness Maggie Jones, whose briefs include employment rights, services and legislation.
DBT is responsible for three bills set out in July’s King’s Speech. The employment rights bill targets banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending “fire-and-rehire” practices and repealing legislation introduced under the last government that was designed to guarantee minimum service levels in public services during strike action. The bill will also create a single enforcement body to help ensure that workplace rights are delivered in practice.
The product safety and metrology bill is designed to ensure that the UK is better placed to address modern-day safety issues – such as fire risks associated with e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries, and to level the playing field between high street and online marketplaces. The bill will also enable the nation to choose between mirroring updated European Union safety rules or diverging from them.
Finally, the draft audit reform and corporate governance bill aims to deliver more “robust and rigorous scrutiny” of large companies’ finances. It is framed as a reaction to corporate failures including the collapse of BHS and outsourcing giant Carillion, and measures will include replacing the Financial Reporting Council with new regulator the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority – with bolstered powers to “tackle bad financial reporting”.
Read up on ministers in other departments here