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Breaking up the science department is a setback for Britain’s AI ambitions

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27.07.2026

Monday 27 July 2026 10:52 am

Breaking up the science department is a setback for Britain’s AI ambitions

By: Eliot Wilson

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Britain's Minister for AI and Online Safety Kanishka Narayan takes part in an onstage discussion during London Tech Week at Olympia on June 08, 2026 in London, England. Attracting the world's leading tech companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud, London Tech Week brings together industry innovators, policymakers, and investors to discuss the latest breakthroughs in the world of tech. This year the Deep Tech Stage features innovations in the fields of space, robotics, sciences, quantum and AI. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Spreading AI across four different departments is a mistake Andy Burnham will come to regret, says Eliot Wilson

Last Tuesday, on his first full day as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham killed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. That has set back the UK’s approach to science policy by several years, for reasons which are at best unconvincing.

Last week’s statement, in the register honed by the Starmer administration of a particularly dry textbook narrated by a hopped-up management trainee, explained that DSIT’s functions would be “redistributed to align with our core economic and social agenda, embedded as vital engines of growth exactly where they can have the most direct impact”.

What this means is that the Cabinet Office will be responsible for AI, with Kanishka Narayan as minister for AI based there and attending Cabinet, at minister of state........

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