Responsibility for the UK’s relationship with the European Union has returned from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to the Cabinet Office, Keir Starmer has announced.
The Cabinet Office has also taken over responsibility for the Government Car Service from the Department for Transport, while the Office for Veterans’ Affairs has moved from the Cabinet Office to the Ministry of Defence, the prime minister said.
Starmer announced the machinery of government changes in a statement provided to the House of Commons yesterday.
He also confirmed that the Government Digital Service, Central Digital and Data Office, and Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (previously called the Incubator for Automation and Innovation) have moved the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
All four changes take effect immediately, Starmer said.
The MOG changes follow the decision to revert the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to its old name.
The handover of EU responsibilities comes after Starmer appointed Nick Thomas-Symonds as a Cabinet Office minister with responsibilities including EU relations.
The Cabinet Office will take ownership of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the EU, including co-chairing the ministerial structures under the UK's treaties with the EU. Starmer said the change would allow Thomas-Symonds “to drive the government's European Union agenda, overseeing the existing relationship, and leading the cross-government work to deepen this relationship in the future”.
The FCDO will remain responsible for bilateral relationships, Gibraltar negotiations and Europe strategy using the department’s diplomatic expertise, Starmer said.
Several think tanks have recommended that the Cabinet Office take back control of EU relations. Jill Rutter, a former senior civil servant who is a senior research fellow at UK in a Changing Europe, made the case for the move in an op-ed for CSW’s sister publication The House earlier this year.
She said: “The lead on the EU relationship becomes a more important issue for a government that seeks change and wants to engage more. It is not clear in current circumstances that a foreign secretary making their mark on the international stage at a time of massive geopolitical tension would want simultaneously to be working through the details of a new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU – and whoever is in charge would need to be well plugged in to work through the domestic and trade angles of any closer alignment with the EU.
"It looks like there could be a strong case for giving coordination back to the Cabinet Office."
The PM said the other addition to the Cabinet Office, the Government Car Service – which provides secure cars for ministers – “will better align” the service with other centrally provided security services for ministers and support end-to-end provision of executive protective security.
Starmer said moving the Office for Veterans’ Affairs to the Ministry of Defence will enable the minister for veterans and people, a role currently held by Alistair Carns, “to have complete oversight for the entirety of service life; from training to veterans working with all government departments to deliver for our service personnel”.
And he said the exodus of digital bodies from Cabinet Office to DSIT, changes set out by the technology department earlier this month, “will embed the delivery of digital services and levers to drive public and private sector innovation within a single department”.
He added that DSIT will work closely with the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury and be “the digital centre of government”.