Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Logo of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Department overview
Formed	June 5, 2009
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	London, England
Minister responsible	The Rt Hon. Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Website
www.bis.gov.uk

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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).^[1]

Ministers

The BIS Ministers are as follows:^[2]

Minister		Rank	Portfolio
	The Rt Hon Dr Vincent Cable MP	Secretary of State President of the Board of Trade	Overall responsibility, business and banking
	The Rt Hon David Willetts MP	Minister of State	Universities and science, innovation, space
	John Hayes MP	Minister of State	Further education, skills and lifelong learning
	Mark Prisk MP	Minister of State	Business and enterprise
	The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP	Minister of State	Decentralisation and cities
	Lord Green	Minister of State	Trade and investment
	Edward Davey MP	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State	Employment relations, consumer and postal affairs
	Baroness Wilcox	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State	Intellectual property

Key		Conservative
		Liberal Democrat

John Hayes works jointly between the department and the Department for Education.^[3]

Greg Clark works jointly between the department and the Department for Communities and Local Government.^[4]

Lord Green works jointly between the department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.^[5]

The Permanent Secretary is Martin Donnelly, following the departure of Simon Fraser CMG, on 26 August 2010.

Responsibilities

The department is responsible for UK Government policy in the following areas:^[6]

• business regulation and support
• company law
• competition
• consumer affairs
• corporate governance
• employment relations
• export licensing
• further education
• higher education
• innovation
• insolvency
• intellectual property
• outer space
• postal affairs
• regional and local economic development
• science and research
• skills
• trade
• training

Some policies apply to England alone due to devolution, while others are not devolved and therefore apply to other nations of the United Kingdom.

Devolution

Economic policy is mostly devolved but several important policy areas are reserved to Westminster. Further and higher education policy is mostly devolved. Reserved and excepted matters are outlined below.

Scotland

Reserved matters:^[7]

• telecommunications
• postal services
• intellectual property
• import and export control
• business associations
• insolvency
• competition
• customer protection
• product standards, safety and liability
• weights and measures
• research councils
• outer space
• time

The Scottish Government Economy and Education Directorates handle devolved economic and further and higher education policy respectively.

Northern Ireland

Reserved matters:^[8]

• telecommunications
• postal services
• intellectual property
• import and export controls, external trade
• units of measurement
• consumer safety in relation to goods

Excepted matter:^[9]

• outer space

The department's main counterparts are:^[10]

• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (general economic policy)
• Department for Employment and Learning (employment relations, further and higher education policy)

Wales

Under the Welsh devolution settlement, specific policy areas are transferred to the National Assembly for Wales rather than reserved to Westminster.

References

1. ^ Prime Minister's Office: Changes to the machinery of Government
2. ^ Cabinet Office List of Government Departments and Ministers: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
3. ^ Ministers: John Hayes MP
4. ^ Ministers: Greg Clark MP
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ Cabinet Office List of Government Departments and Ministers: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
7. ^ Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 5, Part II
8. ^ Northern Ireland Act 1998, Schedule 3
9. ^ Northern Ireland Act 1998, Schedule 2
10. ^ Departments (Transfer and Assignment of Functions) Order (Northern Ireland) 1999

External links

• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) official website

Precursor departments:

• Department for Business and Regulatory Reform
• Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills