New ‘ministry for business’ welcomed by manufacturers

Incoming prime minister Gordon Brown has abolished the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and replaced it with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR). DBERR’s main role will be “to lead work to create the conditions for business success, through competitive and flexible markets, and working across Government and the regions to raise productivity,” said a statement. EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, welcomed the re-organisation and John Hutton as the new Secretary of State. EEF had argued that the DTI could not simply be split up, and its functions spread around other government departments. However, some of its functions have moved – notably the responsibility for innovation, which is now part of the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). EEF director general, Martin Temple, said: "The simple abolition of the DTI was always a non-starter without something better in its place. We now have a beefed-up department which retains essential elements of the old with the key addition of Better Regulation." The CBI’s director-general Richard Lambert described it as “an imaginative re-shaping of the structure of government”.