Donelan replaced by Frazer as culture secretary in cabinet reshuffle

Michelle Donelan has been replaced by former housing minister Lucy Frazer as culture secretary.

As part of Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle she has been appointed secretary of state for science, innovation and technology after just six months leading the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), a role that includes overseeing charity policy.

Frazer has also held ministerial roles under all three previous Conservative Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

As part of Sunak's reshuffle the DCMS will be known as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Meanwhile, digital policy will form part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The Rt Hon Lucy Frazer @lucyfrazermp has been appointed Secretary of State in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.https://t.co/yjCDivYqZt pic.twitter.com/NXrb2JNGfo
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) February 7, 2023

Prior to being appointed by Sunak as minister of state for housing and planning in October last year, Frazer was minister of state for transport during Truss’s short-lived leadership in September.

Meanwhile, in Johnson’s government she was prisons and probation minister, solicitor general, as well as financial secretary to the treasury.

She became an MP, for South East Cambridgeshire, in 2015 and first joined government under Theresa May’s premiership in 2018 as parliamentary under-secretary of state for justice.

Frazer is the fourth culture secretary since 2020. Donelan had replaced Nadine Dorries, who was in the role for only a year. She had replaced Oliver Dowden, who was in the role from February 2020 to September 2021.