WIREDGOV

Repositioning DCMS as the lead for ‘information resilience’ online and offline provides coherence to a currently disparate portfolio, offering a rare opportunity to rethink how the government protects the UK from information threats.

Last week, Burnham’s government announced sweeping ‘machinery of government’ changes, including abolishing the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), established in 2023.

This decision sees DSIT’s portfolio – which aimed to drive growth and innovation by making the UK a science and technology powerhouse – redistributed across the Cabinet Office, Department for Business and Trade (now Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST)) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

This reshuffling has garnered criticism from researchers, policy wonks and industry leaders who highlight that the reorganisation risks wasting time, deprioritising science and technology, and complicating industry’s relationship with government.

However, to those working on online safety and information threats, these machinery of government changes may be more welcome. Removing one of the seven departments responsible for this policy area is a simplification and an opportunity to establish more cross-Whitehall coherence.

Furthermore, articulating DCMS’ responsibility over 'information resilience –- which could be defined as securing the ability to access, assess and establish trust in information and its sources, despite threats and systemic challenges in the information environment – could allow HMG to develop a more strategic approach with online and offline resilience efforts driven by DCMS.

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