Government to Reintegrate Building Digital UK Agency Back into DSIT UPDATE

The Government has today informed ISPreview that its Building Digital UK (BDUK) executive agency, which has responsibility for delivering gigabit broadband and better mobile connectivity across the nation (e.g. the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme), is to be integrated back into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) from 1st November 2025.

Regular readers might recall that the previous Conservative government turned BDUK into an Executive Agency back in April 2022 (here). The move was intended to give BDUK more operational autonomy to focus on deploying its various digital infrastructure programmes, while also establishing a new corporate governance structure for an extra layer of scrutiny and technical oversight.

Despite the change, BDUK remained legally within DCMS (now DSIT) and retained a close relationship with their policy officials. However, the new Labour-led government have been on a mission to review all Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) – also known as quangos – since earlier this year, which has been conducted with a “presumption of closure, merger, or return of functions to departments“.

The review is known to have been assessing ALBs based on four key principles (set out below) and those that failed to demonstrate the necessity of each one were more likely than others to face changes (as above). The exception being where independence from Ministerial decision-making is essential (not relevant to BDUK), such as quangos which scrutinise government or protect the rule of law.

The Four Key Principles:

➤ Ministerial policy oversight – if a policy is of national importance then Ministers should have appropriate oversight and control of its development. Major decisions that affect the country and the public should be taken by those elected by the country to do so.

➤ Duplication and Efficiency – government should drive out duplication and inefficiency wherever possible, this includes if there is duplication of policy or delivery work between ALBs and Ministerial departments.

➤ Stakeholder Management – the fact that government needs to engage stakeholders should not be a reason for an ALB to exist, government itself should be working hard to engage with a variety of partners at every stage.

➤ Independent Advice – where there is a clear justification for independent advice, then this should be conducted at arms length.

Sadly, we don’t know how BDUK scored on each of these, although clearly the government felt as if the right course of action was to reintegrate it back into DSIT.

Written Ministerial Statement by Ian Murray

Today I am announcing that Building Digital UK (BDUK) will be integrated into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) from 1 November 2025. BDUK is currently an executive agency of the department and will become a directorate within the Digital Technologies and Infrastructure group.

This move comes following the Cabinet Office’s review into Arm’s Length Bodies launched in April. The decision continues DSIT’s growth into the UK Government’s department of digital delivery, helping to accelerate innovation and drive economic growth across the country. It builds on the integration of other digital delivery bodies, including the Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) into DSIT.

BDUK will continue to lead the delivery of the government’s vital digital infrastructure programmes, Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network. These programmes remain central to the Government’s Plan for Change and 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, supported by £1.9bn of funding announced in the Spending Review.

Thanks to BDUK’s work, we have already achieved 85% gigabit broadband coverage across the UK, and 95% 4G coverage, meeting both these targets a year ahead of schedule.

Integrating BDUK into DSIT will ensure that its operational expertise is embedded at the heart of Government, enabling more effective delivery of digital infrastructure and supporting our wider ambition to accelerate innovation and drive economic growth across the UK.

We will work closely with staff, unions and stakeholders to manage the integration over the coming months.

One of the concerns with a change like this stems from whether or not it will cause any negative impacts, such as in terms of the resources that BDUK can currently call on (staffing etc.) or the risk of additional admin delays to their current processes. Quite a few of the network operators that we engage with often reflect a view that the organisation can be too slow and thus under-resourced when responding to their needs and projects.

We can only hope that today’s change is going to make things better, not worse, although in reality they might just stay the same.

UPDATE 14th Oct 2025 @ 7:21am

The government informed ISPreview that their priority would be to manage any change without disrupting or undermining the delivery of BDUK’s programmes and while putting their operational expertise right in the heart of Government. As above, BDUK will become a DSIT Directorate staffed with existing BDUK employees in order to retain their existing knowledge.

So the best case scenario right not seems to be one of no change, rather than an improvement or worse outcome.