One of Andy Burnham’s first acts as new UK prime minister has been to abolish the government’s dedicated science department. Responsibility for the science and innovation portfolio now lies with the business department, following the appointment of key members of Burnham’s cabinet.
The change sees the departure of Liz Kendall, who had served as science secretary since September 2025, and Patrick Vallance, who announced his resignation as science minister ‘for personal reasons’ on Monday. Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds has been appointed as secretary of state for business, innovation, science and trade, having previously served as business and trade secretary from July 2024 until September 2025.
During a period of instability in UK politics that has seen seven different prime ministers in a decade, responsibility for science has repeatedly shifted between various ministers and government departments. Over the last 10 years, seven ministers and three secretaries of state have overseen UK science policy.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) was established by Rishi Sunak in 2023, bringing with it a cabinet-level role for a science secretary. Many in the science community lauded that move, believing that it reflected the importance of the research sector to the UK economy and the need for stable leadership. Prior to that, responsibility for science had sat with the business department after the closure of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in 2009. DSIT had faced criticism over the perception that it was overly focused on AI at the expense of the wider R&D ecosystem. Burnham has now appointed Kanishka Narayan as the UK government’s first dedicated minister for AI, sitting within the business department.
According to Paul Nightingale, an expert on science policy based at the University of Sussex, Burnham’s decision to return responsibility for science policy to the business department brings both pros and cons. ‘It’s yet another reorganisation after a long period of policy turmoil, which increases uncertainty for investors and industry. There is an urgent need for a political solution to stabilise policy and policy making around science,’ he notes.
‘On a more positive note, science does need to align more with industry and the integration might, if Andy Burnham is lucky, go some way to repairing the policy mistakes of the 1980s where a hands-off approach to the translation of research into productivity was tried and repeatedly failed,’ adds Nightingale. ‘Hopefully a more realistic approach can be found.’
Big shoes to fill
The departure of Vallance, in particular, has been met with apprehension by some members of the science community. Vallance previously headed up R&D at GlaxoSmithKline before serving as the government chief scientific adviser from 2018 until 2023, playing a prominent role during the Covid-19 pandemic. Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that Vallance had been ‘instrumental’ in improving the UK’s reputation as a life sciences destination, adding that ‘he leaves big shoes to fill’.
The Royal Society president Paul Nurse added that he was ‘very sorry’ to see Vallance step down. ‘Patrick Vallance has been an outstanding voice for science in government,’ he said. ‘His experience from both the lab and business gave him great insight on how best to support science and ensure it led to the public good, including promoting economic growth.’
Tanya Sheridan, head of policy and evidence at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said that Vallance had been ‘an excellent champion for science over the last two years’. ‘With the science and technology brief moving back into a government department alongside business and trade, it is essential that the central importance of science continues to be recognised,’ she added. ‘We must continue to nurture UK science so we can solve global problems, elevate our internationally recognised science research strengths, boost the UK economy and deliver the skilled workforce the country needs.’
According to Nightingale, Vallance’s replacement’s key tasks will be ‘ensuring UKRI is aligned with government policy, especially around the productivity and growth agendas, with the added complexity of dealing with the regional inequality issues the UK faces’.
‘Hopefully they have the political will to ensure that is implemented effectively, which will generate political opposition as it will produce winners and losers,’ he adds. ‘The crisis in the UK university system is looking acute in places, and that will just add to the complexity as there are no resources to bail out failing institutions, but arguing for a more nuanced approach to international students would be helpful.’
The caption of the photo of Patrick Vallance was corrected on 21 July 2026. Vallance was formerly head of R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, not CEO.
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