Summary

  • DSIT’s Digital Infrastructure Advisory Group (DIAG) page still lists North of Tyne Combined Authority as an organisation invited to its Board. North of Tyne’s only term ended in May 2024, when it was absorbed into the new North East Combined Authority.
  • The 2024 North East Deeper Devolution Deal says the North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA) will be represented on the DIAG Board. The current public roster gives no bridge from that promise to the successor or a named representative.

The roster has kept a name the region retired

A Board list is a small document with a large job. It tells officials who has been invited into the room, and tells everyone outside it whose voice can be expected there. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s page for the Digital Infrastructure Advisory Group still names North of Tyne Combined Authority on its invited-organisation list.

The name is out of date. The North East authority says North of Tyne’s first and only term ran from 2019 to 2024, ended in May 2024, and the body was absorbed into the new North East Combined Authority. The legal establishment order for the successor took effect on 7 May 2024. The DIAG page does not record that succession.

The 2024 North East Deeper Devolution Deal was more specific than the roster. It said the North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA) would be represented on DSIT’s DIAG Board. The arrangement was meant to give the new regional authority a route into a national forum about digital connectivity. The deal and the current Board page describe different names for the North East’s place at the table.

The naming sequence continued. The authority’s current About page says the North East Combined Authority was formed on 7 May 2024 and changed its public name to North East Mayoral Strategic Authority on 18 May 2026. The 2024 deal uses NEMCA; the authority now uses North East Mayoral Strategic Authority. DSIT’s Board list still points to North of Tyne Combined Authority.

This is the kind of administrative mismatch that looks harmless until someone needs to know who speaks for a region. “North of Tyne” was a real authority, with a defined term and a public history. It is not the current name on the successor’s website. A page that treats the predecessor as a current invitee leaves readers to guess whether the seat moved, whether a new representative was named, or whether the list simply stopped being maintained.

An invitation is a governance record

DIAG is an advisory group. Its GOV.UK profile says it provides a platform for regional and local authorities to raise connectivity challenges and make policy recommendations to DSIT. Board membership is by invitation. The Board and wider membership group each meet four times a year; DSIT provides the secretariat. The profile lists 15 invited organisations, including North of Tyne.

That structure gives a roster more weight than an ordinary contact page. A region’s broadband and mobile plans depend on local knowledge: where public land is available, which sites face planning obstacles, and where a national programme meets a local constraint. A Board entry signals that the authority named there has been invited to feed that knowledge into a government forum.

The North East deal also ties DIAG to a specific regional commitment. It says the Board can help share practice and identify barriers as the authority pursues connectivity ambitions. The deal does not describe the Board as a delivery authority. It does not award funding, grant access to land or decide spectrum questions. But it creates a public expectation that the successor authority will be represented in the forum where those issues reach DSIT.

The paper trail now has three versions of the same regional institution: the expired North of Tyne entry on the DIAG list; NEMCA in the 2024 deal; and North East Mayoral Strategic Authority on the region’s current website. A person checking who holds the invitation should not need to build that chain from five pages and a statute.

The public records checked here do not identify a current representative or show how the old invitation maps to the successor. A dated appointment notice or updated DIAG roster naming the successor and its representative would settle the question.

Fix the identity, preserve the history

DSIT can correct this with a short roster note. It should identify the successor authority by its current public name, explain that the 2024 deal used NEMCA, name the office or representative appointed to the Board, and give the appointment’s effective date. A link to the successor’s governance page would let readers check the institution behind the name.

The old entry should remain visible in the history. It records a genuine invitation to a predecessor authority and helps explain the transition. The fix is to mark the transition, not erase the predecessor as if it had never served. A dated note could say that North of Tyne’s term ended in May 2024 and point to the successor’s representation.

That repair would also distinguish two public facts that are now blurred: the deal promised a representative, and the Board list shows an invitation. A published appointment connects the promise to the person or office carrying it. If the seat moved by a different route, the record can say so. Either way, the reader gets an answer instead of an archaeological exercise.

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