Photos: What Brown's reshuffle means for tech

Following a week of political turmoil culminating in a cabinet reshuffle, silicon.com takes a look at the changes wrought in the top tiers of government and how they might impact on the technology industry.

Serial tech entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar has been appointed enterprise champion by the government.

Sugar's remit will include acting as an adviser to small business and government, working closely with small business minister Shriti Vadera and trade and investment minister Mervyn Davis.

He will advise government on how best to help small firms and entrepreneurs and meet with banking executives to ensure that money is being made available to SMEs.

The unpaid post is expected to see him help small businesses in areas such as access to finance, how to handle the downturn and how to start a new company.

The star of the BBC show The Apprentice was chosen for the post thanks to the entrepreneurial instincts that saw him turn electronics manufacturer Amstrad into a household name in the home PC market in the 1980s.

Today Sugar runs a number of different businesses including computer company Viglen - which recently won a contract to supply £30m of hardware to the public sector, property investment firm Amsprop and the digital screen and signage business Amscreen.

Photo credit: Amshold