Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport permanent secretary Susannah Storey has been appointed as the new head of profession for government digital and data.
The digital and data profession and Government Digital Service have moved from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to DCMS as part of machinery of government changes made by new prime minister Andy Burnham.
This move means Emran Mian, perm sec at DSIT – which is being abolished – has relinquished his role as head of the profession. Mian become the first perm sec to lead the government digital and data profession after the Starmer administration decided not to replace the previous government chief digital officer role following Joanna Davinson's departure in September last year.
The dissolution of DSIT will see its parts distributed across an expanded Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the Cabinet Office, and a new-look DCMS.
New GDaD head of profession Storey has been perm sec at DCMS since June 2023, rejoining the department just after it lost the digital brief in MoG changes made by then-PM Rishi Sunak.
Before becoming perm sec at DCMS, she had a brief stint as DG for digital technologies and telecoms at DSIT at the beginning of 2023, and a longer spell as director general for digital and media at DCMS from 2019-2023.
In a LinkedIn post announcing Storey's new role, the GDS said its “mission remains unchanged: working together to build modern digital services that make people’s lives better”.
The GDS is led by the interim director general for digital products, Christine Bellamy, and Emily Middleton, who is interim DG for digital transformation.