Whitehall’s tech department has fleshed out the roles and remits of a ministerial teamsheet that underwent a near complete overhaul during the PM’s rejig of his frontbench earlier this month

Following prime minister Keir Starmer’s recent cabinet reshuffle, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has confirmed the roster of responsibilities for an almost entirely new set of ministers.

Of the five ministers who began this month at DSIT, four have moved on to new departments or out of government. This includes the replacement of former technology secretary of state Peter Kyle with Liz Kendall, while the only remaining incumbent, Lord Patrick Vallance, has seen his role as minister for science, innovation and research expanded to also include nuclear.

The three other junior ministers to have joined the department this month –Ian Murray, Kanishka Narayan, and Liz Lloyd – have now been all assigned full titles and remits, updates to their respective GOV.UK profiles reveal.

Murray, the Labour MP for Edinburgh South, takes on the brief as minister for digital government and data. In this role – which is split between DSIT and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – his responsibilities will include public sector reform, digital identity, digital products, and data policy, according to GOV.UK. He joins DSIT and DCMS from his previous post as secretary of state for Scotland.

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Narayan, meanwhile, will serve as minister for AI and online safety. This post comes with a remit encompassing oversight of the AI Security Institute  and Intellectual Property Office, as well as the semiconductor sector and government’s Tech for Growth and AI Opportunities initiatives. The appointment is Naryan’s first in government, having won the Vale of Glamorgan seat at the 2024 general election from long-standing Conservative incumbent Alun Cairns.

Until recently, Liz Lloyd was director of policy delivery and innovation in Starmer’s Downing Street set-up. Her installation as minister for digital economy came alongside the news that she is to be made a life peer and join the House of Lords in the coming weeks.

Her first ministerial posting – which is split between DSIT and the Department for Business and Trade – comes with tech responsibilities including the cyber, telecoms, and space sectors, as well as digital inclusion and skills. The DBT portion of her remit covers areas including digital trade policy, tech adoption across the economy, and supporting the use of GOV.UK One Login by businesses.

The assignment of responsibilities differs slightly from the previous line-up of ministers, which included: Feryal Clark as minister for AI and digital government; Chris Bryant as minister for data protection and telecoms; and Baroness Maggie Jones as minister for digital economy and online safety.

The near-wholesale revamp of DSIT’s ministerial collective come alongside a significant change in the department’s civil service leadership, with government chief digital officer Joanna Davinson leaving her role last week, as exclusively revealed by PublicTechnology. Oversight of the work of the Government Digital Service and Whitehall’s wider digital and data function has been taken over by DSIT permanent secretary Emran Mian, working cooperatively with other senior leaders of GDS. Longer-term leadership plans will be made clear “in due course”, it is understood.