Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
UK government department for business, industry and trade; awarded £18.5m Altilium grant in April 2026.
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade absorbed part of the AI and science brief when the government abolished the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 20 July 2026, splitting its remit three ways.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
Can Britain's Jobs Plan close its lab-skills gap fast enough for the life-sciences firms DBT is trying to keep onshore?
Timeline for Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Confirmed on its gov.uk page that it is being replaced by a renamed department
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UK Startups and InnovationAwarded £18.5m grant to Altilium for EV battery recycling in Plymouth
UK Startups and Innovation: Altilium and TraqCheck headline £76.7m UK tech weekBackground
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade is the UK Government department for business, industry and international trade and, since the 20 July 2026 abolition of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, part of the Science and AI brief. It was known as the Department for Business and Trade before absorbing that portfolio.
Created in February 2023 from a restructuring of the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the department administers the UK's portfolio of free-trade agreements, grant instruments for advanced manufacturing and clean technology, and export promotion. It awarded Plymouth battery recycler Altilium an £18.5 million grant in April 2026 and co-authored a 42-page Life Sciences Jobs Plan with DHSC and the Office for Life Sciences in July 2026, targeting the gap between graduate training and employer-ready laboratory skills.
Where the Cabinet Office now holds overall AI strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport took a separate slice of DSIT's REMIT, this department's addition is the AI and Science brief sitting inside an existing trade and industrial-strategy operation rather than a standalone technology department. As of 27 July 2026, no accounting officer had been named for the sovereign AI programmes the reorganisation touched.
It absorbs part of DSIT's abolished brief
The UK Government abolished the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 20 July 2026, splitting its functions across the Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The AI ministerial brief, held by the same minister before and after the split, now answers into this department's trade and industrial-strategy structure rather than a standalone technology department.
By 27 July the Cabinet Office's own fact sheet on the reorganisation named no accounting officer for the £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan or the £750 million supercomputer programme, a gap sitting alongside the rename this department had already completed.
