Rishi Sunak is this morning embarking on a minor reshuffle of his cabinet as he restructures several Whitehall departments. Today’s cabinet meeting has been pushed back from this morning to mid-afternoon so as to allow for the changes to take place. In a sign of Sunak’s reluctance to ruffle feathers with the parliamentary party, no sackings are expected. Instead the focus will be on rearranging government departments and then matching them largely with serving ministers.

This could make the government run more efficiently and help Sunak point to delivery by the next election

There is, however, one vacancy that has yet to be filled: party chairman. This position has been vacant since Sunak removed Zahawi from his cabinet over his tax affairs after an independent adviser found he had failed to declare the details of the HMRC investigation he was subject to. Rather than a firebrand candidate such as Priti Patel or Kemi Badenoch, Sunak is expected to play is safe and opt for an MP who is known for loyalty and is also rather lo-fi – thereby unlikely to be engulfed by a scandal as was the case with the position’s predecessor. Greg Hands is viewed as the likely appointee.

The part of the reshuffle that Sunak is most interested in, however, relates to the shake-up of government departments. This is an exercise that can take up a lot of time and energy. It means that to do so 18 months from an election could lead to criticism that it is a distraction from other more pressing issues. However, Sunak wants to use it to reflect his priorities including science and technology.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is expected to be broken up, thereby creating a special energy department. The trade department could then be combined with the business element of BEIS. Current Business Secretary Grant Shapps is tipped to lead the new energy ministry with International Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch expected to take on the latter. There will also be a department for science, innovation and technology.

What difference will all this make? It could make the government run more efficiently and thereby help Sunak point to delivery by the time of the next election. But in the immediate term, there are several ministers who felt taken aback by the reports overnight in the media – and change can also lead to complaints.