Culture sec to take over work and pensions

Culture secretary James Purnell, who is credited with devising early plans for the creation of Ofcom, is to take over as work and pensions secretary following the resignation of Peter Hain from the Cabinet.

Purnell assumed ministerial responsibility for broadcasting shortly after being appointed to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport when Gordon Brown became prime minister last year. He had been a special adviser to Tony Blair on media issues since 1997 and became a member of Parliament in 2001.

His tenure at the DCMS covered a year during which the broadcasting industry struggled with trust issues, digital TV switchover got underway, and the future of public service broadcasting came under increasing scrutiny. Last week, he raised the issue of top-slicing - where the link between direct funding of the BBC and the licence fee would be broken in order to distribute the funds raised to multiple public service broadcasters - and indicated that legislation governing the future of broadcasting in the UK would be brought forward in the near future.

It is understood that Andy Burnham, currently chief secretary to the Treasury, will be Purnell's successor.