DMA Welcomes Former Marketer Michelle Donelan As Secretary of State for DCMS

Michelle Donelan has been appointed the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Donelan held posts previously at the Department for Education and Skills. She replaces Nadine Dorries.

Prior to Parliament, the MP for Chippenham worked in a range of marketing roles, including for professional wrestling firm WWE and Marie Claire magazine.

Donelan also holds a peculiar parliamentary record. Having accepted the role of Secretary of State for Education following the promotion of Nadhim Zahawi to Chancellor, Donelan resigned after a mere 35 hours in the role alongside more than 50 other ministers in the final moments of Boris Johnson’s premiership.

As such, she became the shortest-serving Cabinet member in British history, breaking a 239-year-old record of four days set during the government of Pitt the Younger.

The DMA looks forward to continuing the strong and mutually supportive relationships created with Donelan’s ministerial predecessors and officials; partnerships that were particularly successful when developing the EU data adequacy agreement, National Data Strategy proposals, COVID business support and beyond.

The DMA has written to Ms Donelan to outline its full support for the continuation of progress on the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

Indeed, while consumer confidence in data privacy is growing, DMA research shows that 69 per cent of people are still concerned about the way their data is used online. The UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill has the potential to improve this in a number of ways.

Importantly, it can reduce red tape and clarify certain 'grey areas' within current data protection legislation. Consequently, businesses can be confident to act lawfully, increasing consumer trust.

Chris Combemale, CEO of the DMA said:

“The DMA community congratulates Michelle Donelan, an experienced marketer, for securing this exciting post during a vital period for UK data protection reform. We strongly encourage Ms Donelan to carry forward the UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill with urgency,”

“This is a timely opportunity to support business growth by reducing red tape and offering greater clarity on data laws. In particular, we hope to establish further clarity over the use of legitimate interest as a means of processing personal data for marketing purposes. We look forward to securing these vital reforms for the data and marketing industry in partnership with the Secretary of State and DCMS ministers.”