{"slug": "burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up", "title": "Burnham risks ‘big mistake’ on AI with tech department shake-up", "summary": "Andy Burnham risks alienating global investors and damaging Britain's standing as a tech hub by reportedly abolishing the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), according to tech leaders and former government AI adviser Matt Clifford, who called the plan 'a big mistake'. The tech sector warns that restructuring would distract from the critical race to commercialize AI against the US, China, and Europe, with techUK and the Startup Coalition calling it 'the wrong change at the wrong time'.", "body_md": "# Burnham risks ‘big mistake’ on AI with tech department shake-up\n\nAndy Burnham has been warned that breaking up the government department behind Britain’s artificial intelligence strategy could unsettle global investors and damage the country’s standing as a technology hub.\n\nThe [incoming prime minister ](https://www.cityam.com/burnham-promises-to-build-new-economy/)is reportedly considering abolishing the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and splitting its responsibilities between the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.\n\nThe plans have not been confirmed. Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and DSIT all declined to comment.\n\nThe prospect of an overhaul of the department has triggered a unified response from the tech sector, which has argued that Britain’s priority should be maintaining momentum in one of its fastest-growing industries – not reorganising government.\n\n“It feels like it’s fixing something that wasn’t broken,” Brent Hoberman, founder of Founders Forum, who lobbied for the creation of a dedicated technology department before DSIT was established, told *City AM*.\n\n“There’s going to need to be a great speech and some great policies to say, ‘This is why entrepreneurs will flourish in the UK’,” he said.\n\nInvestors will now be looking for a clear signal that technology remained central to Burnham’s growth plans, Hoberman added.\n\nBritain is home to the world’s third-largest technology ecosystem and Europe’s biggest AI startup market and ministers have spent the past three years pitching the country as a global AI hub.\n\nThe new Prime Minister has pledged to spread economic growth beyond London through greater devolution and regional investment.\n\nHoberman backed that ambition but warned it should build on, rather than weaken, Britain’s biggest tech hub in the capital.\n\n“Our best six-letter word is London,” he said. “Technology has to be at the heart of all of that.”\n\nFormer government AI adviser Matt Clifford, who helped shape Britain’s AI strategy, called the reported plans “a big mistake”.\n\n“Right now is a critical moment for tech as an economic and national security issue,” he said. “Tying up our most senior science and tech officials in a reorganisation wastes time and energy that’s desperately needed for the actual substance.”\n\n## ‘A big mistake’\n\nDSIT was created in 2023 to bring together responsibility for AI, research, digital regulation and innovation under one secretary of state.\n\nSince then it has overseen the [AI Opportunities Action Plan](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan/ai-opportunities-action-plan), the AI Security Institute, the £500m Sovereign AI Fund and UK Research and Innovation, while acting as government’s main point of contact for the sector.\n\nBeyond concerns of whether DSIT survives, trade bodies have warned that months of restructuring would distract ministers and civil servants just as Britain tries to cement its position against the US, China and Europe in the race to commercialise AI.\n\nIn a joint letter to Burnham, techUK and the Startup Coalition described abolishing DSIT as “the wrong change at the wrong time”, saying another machinery-of-government reshuffle would slow decision-making when businesses were looking for clarity.\n\nRuss Shaw, founder of Global Tech Advocates, said Burnham’s plans to spread growth beyond London could strengthen regional tech clusters, provided they did not come at the expense of a coherent national strategy.\n\n“The core priority for the UK tech ecosystem isn’t a specific political ideology, but the need for momentum,” he added.\n\nIan Hogarth, chair of the AI Security Institute, told *City AM*: “The best civil servants I’ve worked with are there to have impact. If you chew their days up with these kind of random re-orgs, the best people move on.”\n\nMeanwhile, rumours that Burnham intends to appoint Britain’s first Cabinet-level AI minister have been welcomed by the industry.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up", "canonical_source": "https://www.cityam.com/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up/", "published_at": "2026-07-20 14:49:48+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-20 15:26:22.417436+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Andy Burnham", "DSIT", "Brent Hoberman", "Founders Forum", "Matt Clifford", "techUK", "Startup Coalition", "Russ Shaw"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/burnham-risks-big-mistake-on-ai-with-tech-department-shake-up.jsonld"}}