Your guide to the department's cast of ministerial characters, and what’s in their in-trays
DSIT was one of the new departments created as part of Rishi Sunak’s February 2023 machinery of government reforms. But Keir Starmer has immediately put his own footprints on the department.
In one of his first machinery of government tweaks, Starmer moved the Government Digital Service, Central Digital and Data Office and Incubator for AI from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, turning DSIT into the digital centre of government.
The MOG change had been hinted at before the election, in a speech made by Peter Kyle, now the science, innovation and technology secretary, at London Tech Week.
Kyle, who started his first job on his 13th birthday collecting battery eggs from a chicken farm, is a 2015 intake MP. Before becoming an MP, he worked as an aid worker in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where he supported young people who had been affected by war. This included setting up an orphanage in Romania, which is still active today. He later set up a film production company, before becoming a special adviser to Hilary Armstrong, the then-Cabinet Office secretary.
Kyle suffered a series of tragedies in 2012, with his partner, mother and closest female friend all dying within a few weeks.
Whilst Kyle – who held the shadow science and tech brief since late 2023 – retained his position on the Labour front bench, the remainder of his shadow team – Chi Onwurah, Chris Evans, and Matt Rodda – did not receive ministerial appointments.
DSIT’s most striking appointment is new science, research and innovation minister Lord Patrick Vallance, the former government chief scientific adviser.
Vallance, who was the CSA between 2018 and 2023 and became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic, boasts considerable expertise in his portfolio, having enjoyed a lengthy career teaching at medical schools before moving to GSK where he eventually became head of research and development.
Another well-known name is Sir Chris Bryant, who has joined the department as minister for data protection and telecoms alongside another ministerial position in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Bryant is best known for debates in the House of Commons. His contributions can be characterised by pithy remarks, unpredictable off-hand comments, and frequent injections of humour. One of his calling cards during debates on the media bill was ensuring every speech was complete with at least one Taylor Swift reference.
Completing the team are Feryal Clark, holding a particularly topical brief as minister for AI and digital government, and Baroness Maggie Jones as minister for the future digital economy and online safety.
Jones is well acquainted with the brief, having been shadow spokesperson for science, innovation and technology for the duration of the last parliament. Clark is also well versed in science and technology: before becoming an MP, she worked in pathology and completed a degree in bioinformatics.
The department will be working on two key pieces of legislation during this parliament, the digital information and smart data bill and the cyber security and resilience bill.
Read up on ministers in other departments here