New PM Burnham scraps DSIT despite tech industry pushback

Updated 09:40am BST 21 July 2026 after the decisions to scrap DSIT and appoint a cabinet-level AI Minister were confirmed.

As the UK welcomes its seventh Prime Minister in ten years, some of the UK's leading tech groups and figures have pushed back on Andy Burnham's decision to scrap the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Before Burnham took one step into 10 Downing Street on Monday, early reports that he was planning to fold DSIT into the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) had already prompted an open letter from techUK.

The trade organisation, alongside Startup Coalition, published its letter on Saturday, ahead of confirmation that DSIT's responsibilities would be rolled into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), and said the move would be "the wrong change at the wrong time."