Blackwood handed health IT

Nicola Blackwood has been handed responsibility for health IT in the post-Brexit shake-up of government.

The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Health for public health and innovation.

As well as public health, this new role will include purview over health technology, innovation and data. She took to Twitter this week to share the news and said she was “delighted” with the new role.

Since she was elected to Parliament in 2010, Blackwood’s other political roles have included parliamentary private secretary to the minister for energy and enterprise, membership of the Home Affairs Select Committee, and vice chair of the Conservative Party.

She did not support leaving the EU. Blackwood takes over Health IT responsibilities from former life sciences minister George Freeman, who has been shifted to a new role as chairman of the Prime Minister’s policy board.

She is one of three new ministers at the department under health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who held onto his job last week amid a ruthless reshuffle under new Prime Minister Theresa May last week.

The other two ministers at the department are Philip Dunne, who will oversee hospital care, NHS performance and operations, the workforce, patient safety and maternity care, and David Mowat, who will handle adult social care, carers, community services, cancer, dementia, learning disabilities and primary care.

Lord Prior retains his position as parliamentary undersecretary of state for health, covering off the portfolio in the House of Lords.