The department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – the ministerial department responsible for business, industrial strategy, science, innovation, energy, and climate change – is no more.

In Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest reshuffle, energy has been separated from business. The department responsible for this vital portfolio will now be called the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

BEIS has existed since 2016 after elements of the business department were merged with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). However, it has now effectively been split in three with energy, crucially, having its own department.

It is at least the fourth time that energy has broken away from the broader business department to enjoy standalone status within Whitehall.

Given the challenges that soaring energy prices are having on both households and businesses, many will welcome the change.

It is hoped the move brings more clarity to a complex landscape and leads to a more coherent energy strategy as the U.K. faces the challenges of soaring prices and the drive towards a decarbonised economy.

Grant Shapps, previously business secretary, will head a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, a ministry charged with boosting Britain’s energy supplies and its transition away from fossil fuels.