Tom Loosemore

The FT and Guardian report that the new PM will disband the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT), splitting its functions between a beefed-up Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Responsibility for AI in public services may go to the Cabinet Secretary.

One DSIT function I know and care about, having co-founded it, is the Government Digital Service (GDS). Since DBT is mooted to become the Ministry of Industry, GDS would likely land in DCMS.

This is crazy. Here’s why.

Merging Whitehall departments causes at least a year of internal mayhem, distracting from what Ministers actually care about. Senior officials get bogged down haggling over org charts, roles and pay, while merging IT systems is a nightmare with no end. This government has barely two years to show voters improved services, and you want to waste a year shuffling deckchairs?

You’re not serious about devolution if GOV.UK One Login isn’t politically backed to prioritise local authorities and MSAs over Whitehall. DCMS doesn’t have and never will have that political capital. Devolution requires Whitehall to provide local government and MSAs with the digital plumbing underpinning all modern public services, a gargantuan cultural shift needing genuine servant leadership from the centre. Such cross-jurisdiction digital public infrastructure is hard to get right, and GDS generally does it well. We need more common platforms like GOV.UK Notify, used by tens of thousands of public services to send billions of messages, and GOV.UK Pay, which handles billions in payments across thousands of services. GDS is following an ambitious roadmap including a common digital wallet and digital credentials. DCMS drafts policy and herds ALBs; it can’t lead radical reform of public service foundations. Has this been thought through? Has it?

Making the most of AI to improve public services requires new AI-native common platforms. You’re not serious about AI-driven reform if one “AI for public services” platform team sits in Cabinet Office while the teams handling non-AI platforms and common data sit at the margins in DCMS. Have you not clocked the chaos this invites?

Finally, and most seriously, many of the best people will just leave.