It’s time for consensus on science’s place in government

By Patrick Walter2026-07-22T14:00:00

Michelle Donelan, Peter Kyle and Liz Kendall

Source: © Anthony Wallace/AFP, Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu & Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Imag

The latest shake-up of UK science policy oversight brings uncertainty to a sector that needs stability to succeed

So, farewell Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). We hardly knew ye. The department that was set up to manage UK science just three years ago by then prime minister Rishi Sunak has been disbanded by incoming prime minister Andy Burnham. It seems the science portfolio’s peripatetic wanderings in Whitehall must continue.