DECC shuffles ministerial pack

The government confirmed the new ministerial responsibilities within the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) late last week, following Gordon Brown's recent cabinet reshuffle.

Secretary of state Ed Miliband MP remains in charge of overall strategy and international negotiations, and is expected to become an increasingly visible and influential figure over the next six months as the government embarks on its new five-point climate change programme.

He will head up a new team that sees Lord Philip Hunt replace Mike O'Brien following his move to the Department for Health.

Lord Hunt – the former health minister who made headlines in 2003 when he resigned in protest at the Iraq war – joins DECC from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and will take charge of O'Brien's portfolio, including energy security, renewables, nuclear energy, CCS, smart meters, and the low-carbon industrial strategy. He will also represent the department in the Lords.

Meanwhile, David Kidney MP enters government for the first time, having been appointed as a parliamentary under-secretary of state with responsibility for the government's fuel poverty strategy and its Warm Front domestic energy-efficiency programme. He will also be tasked with representing the interests of energy consumers, and promoting skills development in emerging low-carbon industries.

Incumbent climate change minister Joan Ruddock will remain in her role, taking responsibility for domestic energy efficiency, EU emissions trading, the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the work of the Energy Savings Trust and the implementation of the government's carbon budgets.

She will also support Miliband at international negotiations in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks at the end of this year.