Tech finally has its own seat at the government table

An 'important step' in ambition to become the next Silicon Valley

A new government department signals a change in how Whitehall views technology.

For years, digital has been the red-headed stepchild of the Conservative government. Successive Prime Ministers have talked a good game on the importance of technology investment, while at the same time lumping it in with unrelated subjects in the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, aka the "we don't really know where this goes" department.

Now Rishi Sunak has created a new government department as part of a mini cabinet reshuffle: the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which will see science and technology finally have a dedicated seat at the cabinet table.

That seat will be filled by the former head of DCMS, Michelle Donelan (shortly to go on maternity leave), which it's fair to say has been a controversial move given her lack of industry experience.

That aside, the tech sector has largely welcomed the news that it will be prioritised in government, at last.

Gerard Grech, CEO of (soon-to-be-defunct) startup accelerator Tech Nation, said, "Science and technology innovation...is a high order priority that requires a singular focus, resourcing and, most importantly, expertise.

"Having a dedicated department that can aggregate the critical policy levers that drive disruptive UK innovation whilst working with other departments will be very productive and will stimulate new value creation."

Likewise Martin Taylor, co-founder and deputy CEO of Content Guru, said the creation of the new department is "an important step" in the UK's goal to become the next Silicon Valley. He noted that the government's approach to supporting the sector is changing, however, with the defunding of Tech Nation - a not-for-profit with a track record of scaling up businesses like Just Eat, Darktrace and Ocado - an obvious indicator.

The sooner the government can launch DSIT (isn't is a good thing 'health' isn't part of its remit?), the better. Like other private sector industries, tech has lacked certainty about its future since the Brexit vote in 2016.

It's fair to say we haven't been blown away by the government's commitment to technology in recent years, despite supportive words from five different PMs, but we'll reserve judgement until we see what DSIT produces. Setting up the new department is the first real, positive change in over a decade and it would be churlish to discount it just because of a 13-year track record of weak support (okay, that's the last of the cynicism. Promise).