Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Department overview
Formed2001; 25 years ago (2001)
Preceding agencies
JurisdictionGovernment of the United Kingdom
Headquarters
  • 2 Marsham Street, London
Annual budget£2.2 billion (current) & £400 million (capital) for 2011-12
Secretary of State responsible
Department executives
  • Paul Kissack, Permanent Secretary
  • Nick Joicey, Second Permanent Secretary and Group Chief Operating Officer
Child agencies
Websitegov.uk/defra
Applies to
Relates toEnvironment, food, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England
Other UK counterparts
Northern IrelandDepartment of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
ScotlandEnvironment and Forestry Directorate
WalesWelsh Government

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The department is responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for cooperation, between it and the Scottish Government, Welsh Government, and Northern Ireland Executive, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations.

Defra also leads for the United Kingdom on agricultural, fisheries and environmental matters in international negotiations on sustainable development and climate change, although a new Department of Energy and Climate Change was created on 3 October 2008 to take over the last responsibility, which was later transferred to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy following Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister in July 2016.

Creation

The department was formed in June 2001, under the leadership of Margaret Beckett, when the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was merged with part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and with a small part of the Home Office.

It was created after the perceived failure of MAFF to deal adequately with an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease. The department had about 9,000 core personnel, as of January 2008.

In October 2008, the climate team at Defra was merged with the energy team from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), to create the Department of Energy and Climate Change, then headed by Ed Miliband.

Ministers

Defra ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:

Minister Portrait Office Portfolio
Angela Eagle MP Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Budget, including Official; Development Assistance (ODA); international relations; senior appointments; economic growth
Emma Hardy MP Minister of State for Water and Flooding Water reform and delivery; environmental governance, including the Environmental Improvement Plan; flooding and emergencies; waste, resources and the circular economy; chemicals and air quality; sponsorship of the Office for Environmental; Protection (OEP), Environment Agency, the New Water Regulator and Consumer Council for Water (CCW)
Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature Planning and land use; protected landscapes; rural communities; climate adaptation; international biodiversity; access to nature; tree planting and forestry; green finance; domestic biodiversity; sponsorship of Natural England, Forestry Commission, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)
Stephen Morgan MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Farming, Food and Fisheries Farming and food; marine and fisheries; science and innovation; animal welfare (farmed animals); net zero; sponsorship of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and Sea Fish Industry Authority
Sue Hayman, Baroness Hayman of Ullock Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Biosecurity, Borders and Animals Trade; EU and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement; Northern Ireland and Windsor Framework; animal welfare (companion and wild animals); biosecurity; borders; veterinary reform; pesticides; corporate services; statutory instrument programme oversight; sponsorship of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD)

The permanent secretary is Paul Kissack.

Responsibilities

Defra is responsible for British Government policy in the following areas:

Some policies apply to England alone due to devolution, while others are not devolved and therefore apply to the United Kingdom as a whole.

Executive agencies

The department's executive agencies are:

Key delivery partners

The department's key delivery partners are:

A full list of departmental delivery and public bodies may be found on the Defra website.

Defra in England

A Countryside Stewardship Scheme sign near a new stile a Cratfield, Suffolk

Policies for environment, food and rural affairs are delivered in the regions by Defra's executive agencies and delivery bodies, in particular Natural England, the Rural Payments Agency, Animal Health, and the Marine Management Organisation.

Defra provides grant aid to the following flood and coastal erosion risk management operating authorities:

Aim and strategic priorities

Defra's overarching aim is sustainable development, which is defined as "development which enables all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations". The Secretary of State wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister that he saw Defra's mission as enabling a move toward what the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has called "one planet living".

Under this overarching aim, Defra has five strategic priorities:

Defra aims to procure a significant proportion of the goods and services it requires from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in line with government policy on the SME agenda, and has also encouraged its major contractors to engage with SMEs.

Defra's headquarters are at 2, Marsham Street, London. It is also located at Nobel House, 17, Smith Square, London.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Budget 2011 (PDF). London: HM Treasury. 2011. p. 48. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  2. ↑ "About us". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 June 2026. Although Defra only works directly in England, it works closely with the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and generally leads on negotiations in the EU and internationally.
  3. ↑ "Devolution - Main Concordat between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Scottish Executive". Defra. 11 November 1999. Archived from the original on 18 March 2009.
  4. ↑ "Concordat between MAFF and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales". Defra. 24 October 2000. Archived from the original on 23 February 2006.
  5. ↑ "Devolution: Subject specific Concordat between MAFF and the Scottish Executive on fisheries". Defra. 11 November 1999. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008.
  6. ↑ "Defra departmental report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2008.
  7. ↑ Harrabin, Roger (3 October 2008). "Marrying energy demand and supply". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  8. ↑ This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: "Our ministers". GOV.UK. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  9. ↑ "Permanent Secretary Appointed at Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs".
  10. ↑ "Cabinet Office List of Ministerial Responsibilities, July 2010". Cabinetoffice.gov.uk. 16 September 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  11. ↑ "List of ministerial responsibilities (including Executive Agencies and Non-Ministerial Departments)" (PDF). Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  12. ↑ "DEFRA Agencies shake-up", news release by Defra, 29 June 2010 (from the Defra website)
  13. ↑ "Launch of Animal Health" Archived 22 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine, news release by Animal Health, 2 April 2007 (from the Defra website)
  14. ↑ "Working with others: Defra's delivery partners" Archived 5 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Chapter 6, Departmental Report 2006 (from the Defra website)
  15. ↑ "Marine Management Organisation established" Archived 2 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, press release by Defra, 1 April 2010 (from the Defra website.
  16. ↑ "New champion for the environment launches". Natural England. 11 October 2006. Archived from the original on 10 June 2007.
  17. ↑ "Delivery Landscape Map". Defra. 20 April 2007. Archived from the original on 29 April 2007.
  18. ↑ Miliband, David (11 July 2006). "My priorities for Defra" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2007.
  19. ↑ "Delivering the Essentials of Life: Defra's Five Year Strategy" (PDF). Defra. December 2004. Annex B. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2007.
  20. ↑ This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: Cabinet Office, Making Government business more accessible to SMEs: Two Years On, p. 23, published on 8 August 2013, accessed on 25 December 2024
  21. ↑ "Defra staff set for Marsham Street move as leases expire". Civil Service World. 24 June 2020.
  22. ↑ "London Nobel House DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS". governmentbuildings.co.uk.