Catalogue description Records of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was created on 6 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). The new department's key role is to build Britain's capabilities to compete in the global economy and the merger of BERR and DIUS brought together the parts of the government with key expertise in these areas.

On 14 July 2016, BIS was merged with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to create the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Additionally, BIS’s higher and further education and apprenticeships responsibilities were transferred to the Department for Education, while BIS also lost its responsibility for trade and investment policy to a newly-created Department for International Trade.