Back to square one at DSIT - just as government tech policy needs to deliver

Labour Digital, a membership group set up to promote and encourage discussion around digital policies in the Labour Party, was justifiably pleased with itself after prime minister Keir Starmer’s latest Cabinet reshuffle.

In a LinkedIn post, the group celebrated the members of its network that were now in ministerial roles – from Darren Jones and Peter Kyle, now chief secretary to the PM and secretary of state for business & trade, to Kanishka Narayan, part of the 2024 intake of Labour MPs now promoted to under-secretary of state at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) where he will, presumably, have direct responsibility for much of the government’s tech and digital policies.

Unfortunately, there was one name notably missing from Labour Digital’s list of promoted and garlanded alumni – Liz Kendall, who, out of the blue, became the new secretary of state for DSIT, shuffled over from the Department for Work and Pensions. Even Labour’s most prominent digital supporters seem to have found little evidence that Kendall has the slightest background, knowledge or experience in tech policy – although Labour Digital contacted Computer Weekly to stress that it “fully supports” her appointment.

Largely, it was ever thus. It wouldn’t be fair to single out Kendall for being dropped into a job she has seemingly little relevant experience to do – she is hardly the first to pass through the various incarnations of digital ministerial responsibilities without any previous affiliation to the sector.

Most notably, there was the junior minister in the last Conservative government given the digital government brief, who famously admitted to a room of tech journalists that she knew nothing about technology, and thought this fact was quite a jolly jape.

Kyle, of course, was the previous incumbent as technology secretary. He was, at least, a tech enthusiast, who had covered the brief in opposition and spent time getting to know the industry and understand its issues. But there was always the suspicion that DSIT was nothing more than a stepping-stone to bigger and more important departments for someone known to be close to Starmer and his team.

After just one year in position, the entire DSIT ministerial team was reshuffled by Starmer – a year’s experience thrown away, and a year of education and support from the industry sent straight back to square one.

What’s more, the status of DSIT seems to have been downgraded. Where before there were two full-time and one part-time minister responsible for tech and digital, now (at the time of writing) there appears to be only one and a half.

Under Kyle we had Feryal Clark as minister for AI and digital government, Maggie Jones as minister for the future digital economy and online safety, and Chris Bryant in a shared role across DSIT and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for telecoms.

Now we have Ian Murray taking Bryant’s shared role – yet to be confirmed whether his remit includes telecoms – and the aforementioned Narayan, an MP with one year’s experience in Parliament, but who has at least shown interest and activity related to tech in his constituency work in Vale of Glamorgan, and claims experience in advising climatetech entrepreneurs.

Perhaps there’s a further junior ministerial post at DSIT waiting to be filled – let’s hope. [Update 12 September: Liz Lloyd has been appointed as a second under-secretary of state jointly at DSIT and the Department for Business and Trade, and as “Baroness in waiting (government whip)”, which basically means she will be the spokesperson in the House of Lords, effectively replacing Maggie Jones – Baroness Jones – in that role.]

But overall, it feels like tech has been given a downgrade in the reshuffle, despite all the positivity radiated towards the sector by the government over the past year. Industry bodies will have to repeat their post-election briefings and dig out their Powerpoint slides from last year.

Of course, it’s easy to question what difference the background of the ministerial team makes – DSIT is hardly the only department to be stocked with MPs with little apparent experience to go with their remit. These are people focused first and foremost on their political career, not their industrial knowledge.

And the DSIT civil service team responsible for forming and implementing tech and digital policies remains much the same – those ministers will just have to do what they are told.

But even here, a quick glance at the DSIT website raises a few eyebrows. Five of the eight members of the DSIT management team with digital remits are listed as “interim”. We have a temporary director general for digital centre design, an interim director general for digital, technology and infrastructure, an interim director general for artificial intelligence, an interim government chief digital officer, and an interim government chief data officer.

Outside of that senior team, the new director of the government’s AI incubator is also currently an interim appointment.

It’s true to say that “interim” in civil service terms often means this is the permanent person but they still have to complete the formal recruitment process. But that many interims does seem a lot.

Furthermore, when asked earlier this year what was different about the government’s approach to tech policy, Kyle pointed to the establishment of an interministerial digital committee, consisting of himself, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden, and chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones (a former tech lawyer). Their role was to ensure digital policy was pushed through every department that needed it. All three members of that committee have now been reshuffled. Does that committee even still exist? If so, who’s on it? It’s another area of uncertainty.

The government has been aggressive – some would say over-optimistic – in its digital policies and promises so far. The plans are in place, and now they need to be delivered. We are very much in the execution phase now – high-profile commitments such as the government digital wallet and the digital driving licence are due to be launched within months. Is the ministerial team in place that’s going to drive that delivery?

The tech sector will be on pause – going through the motions of making new ministerial contacts and explaining / lobbying on their hopes and desires for policy, yet again. But the government’s promises cannot be paused – the UK cannot wait to transform its digital economy for the future.

The tech sector thrives on change. Governments tend to change when least expected and often don’t thrive as a result. A new and inexperienced ministerial team at DSIT needs to get up to speed fast.

Footnote: It’s not just DSIT that’s seen a complete overhaul. At Kyle’s new department, the ministerail team responsible for handling the fallout from the Post Office scandal and delivering the redress schemes for victims has also been reshuffled, meaning new faces having to get up to speed there too. It’s hugely disappointing to see relationships built up, hopes raised, and then back to square one here too.