Former chief secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms is to take over ministerial responsibility for e-commerce and the communications and information industries after Gordon Brown’s Cabinet reshuffle, it was confirmed this week.

Timms was appointed competitiveness minister in the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is the successor to the Department of Trade and Industry.

As chief secretary, Timms chaired the Cabinet Office PSX(E) committee on electronic service delivery and led moves to improve visibility of strategic Whitehall IT programmes at ministerial level.

He is also a former e-commerce minister, worked for IT services supplier Logica and also used to be an IT analyst at Ovum.

Timms’ other ministerial responsibilities include shipbuilding, steel-making, car production, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and company law.