Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith has been made the lead minister on government IT, according to an update on ministerial responsibilities issued by the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office has been lacking a minister for digital engagement since Tom Watson - widely respected in the IT community - left the role earlier in the year.

Though Smith is not assuming that mantle, the government chief information officer John Suffolk will report to her, as he did previously to Watson.

Smith is a Gordon Brown loyalist who was parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister until June 2009.

Smith will also be responsible for information security and assurance, the third sector, social exclusion, UK statistics and civil service issues.

The government was last reshuffled in July. At the time Stephen Timms was made Digital Britain minister after the department of communications minister Stephen Carter from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Mike O'Brien has ministerial responsibility for the NHS National Programme for IT.