Lucy Frazer new Culture Secretary as DCMS drops its D brief

DCMS is to be reorganised following PM Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the government will create four new departments to ensure that “the UK can deliver on its economic promises”.

The PM’s reorganisation will see DCMS no longer handle its ‘digital brief’, which has been transferred to the newly established Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Changes see current Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan take the role of first secretary of state for ‘SIT’ – a department deemed essential for the UK to attract and maintain tech businesses as a “world leader in innovation and free market enterprise”.

South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer has been announced as new Secretary of ‘ a restyled Culture Media and Sports’ department.

An MP since 2015, Frazer has previously served as the minister overseeing Housing and Planning since October last year and has held brief spells as solicitor general for England and Wales and transport minister.

The PM’s statement detailed that the government “recognises the importance of these industries to our economy and build on the UK’s position as a global leader in the creative arts”.

Further changes will see the government establish two new departments for ‘Energy Security and Net Zero’ and ‘Business and Trade’.

DCMS is recognised as one the government’s most disrupted departments as Frazer becomes the ninth Conservative minister to serve as Culture Secretary since 2016.

PM Sunak announced no changes to junior cabinet roles, as undersecretary Paul Scully will maintain the Gambling Review brief, who pledged that the government will publish its White Paper of industry reforms in February.