There has been widespread criticism of Gordon Brown's decision to scrap the universities and skills department.

Tony Wright, chair of the Commons public administration committee, said machinery of government changes "should be subject to a process of consultation and Parliamentary approval".

Wright added that although departmental changes were occasionally necessary, the government needed to provide "some justification" for such moves.

Jonathan Baume, general secretary of civil service managers' union the FDA, condemned the move as a waste of money and said that ministers seemed to have little understanding of the effort required to set up, or merge, departments.

“More than £7m of taxpayers’ money has been wasted so far in setting up the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and then abolishing it 20 months later," Baume said.

"There is a responsibility on Parliament to ensure that the government is held to account for this entire farce."

The 2008 DIUS annual report revealed that the administrative costs of setting up the department totalled £7.1m.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said his organisation had opposed the original creation of DIUS, insisting that more change would only hinder further education policy.

"Moving colleges along with higher education into the newly formed department is hardly likely to be a step forward," dunford said.
 
"With a new government likely to be in place in under a year, with its own priorities and plans, to begin a major civil service department restructure now seems futile and a waste of taxpayers’ money."
 
Announced on Friday as part of the prime minister's reshuffle, DIUS will be merged with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) to create a new a beefed-up Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to be led by Lord Mandelson, who gains the honorific title of first secretary of state.

Speaking at a press conference, the prime minister said that merging the science and skills agendas with business would better enable the country to emerge from the recession.

DIUS secretary of state John Denham will move to the communities department, while former permanent secretary Ian Watmore left government to run the Football Association this month.

The skills department, set up after Gordon Brown became prime minster in June 2007, is thought to be the shortest lived department of state in history.