The abolition of an entire Whitehall department rarely counts as good news for the firms that depend on it. Yet the business world’s response to Andy Burnham’s decision to scrap the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has been strikingly split: dismay at the loss of a respected science minister, relief at the return of a familiar face to the business brief.
Lord Vallance of Balham has stepped down as science minister, and the department’s responsibilities have been folded into an enlarged Department for Business and Trade. In his place, Jonathan Reynolds returns as business secretary, ten months after being reshuffled out of the role.
For the thousands of smaller firms clustered in Britain’s growth sectors, from life sciences start-ups to advanced manufacturers, the reshuffle raises one immediate question: who in government now champions science?
Vallance, a former president of research and development at GSK and the government’s chief scientific adviser between 2018 and 2023, was prized for exactly that. “After nearly a decade in government I am stepping down as a minister, for personal reasons,” he said.
His exit lands at a delicate moment. The life sciences sector, heavy with the kind of high-growth SMEs the industrial strategy is meant to nurture, has spent two years fretting about Britain’s slide down the global life sciences investment rankings.
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