Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

United Kingdom

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the United Kingdom

Government Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II The Crown The Privy Council Cabinet Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP Chancellor Alistair Darling MP Foreign Secretary David Miliband MP Home Secretary Jacqui Smith MP Justice Secretary Jack Straw MP Full list of members Her Majesty's Civil Service Departments Executive Agency Parliament State Opening of Parliament Act of Parliament House of Lords Lord Speaker Baroness Hayman House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin MP Leader Harriet Harman MP Prime Minister's Questions Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition Leader David Cameron MP Shadow Cabinet Judiciary Courts of the United Kingdom Courts of England and Wales Courts of Northern Ireland Courts of Scotland Constitution Human rights Countries of the UK Politics of England English Regional Assemblies Greater London Authority Politics of Scotland Scottish Government Scottish Parliament Politics of Wales Welsh Assembly Government National Assembly for Wales Politics of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Executive Northern Ireland Assembly Reserved matters Elections Parliament constituencies Political parties Last election Next election Foreign Policy Foreign relations Politics of the European Union

Other countries · Atlas  Politics portal view • talk •

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co-operation between it and the Scottish Government,¹ the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales² and with representatives from the Northern Ireland Assembly,³ which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations. Defra also leads for the UK at the EU on agricultural, fisheries and environment matters and in other 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.

It 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. The department 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 2008.⁴ The department's main building is Nobel House in Smith Square, SW1.

Ministers

After the 2005 General Election, the Ministry was restructured, with one fewer Ministers of State and one further Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State but this reverted after a reshuffle in May 2006. The current make-up of the department's ministers is:⁵

• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — The Rt Hon. Hilary Benn, MP
  • Minister of State for Farming and the Environment — Jane Kennedy, MP
  • Minister of State for Sustainable Development, Climate Change Adaptation and Air Quality — Lord Hunt of Kingsheath (jointly with Department of Energy and Climate Change)
  • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Natural and Marine Environment, Wildlife and Rural Affairs — Huw Irranca-Davies, MP

Permanent Secretary

Helen Ghosh is the current Permanent Secretary. The Permanent Secretary is Head of the Department and also Principal Accounting Officer. She has personal responsibility for the overall organisation, management and staffing of the Department and for Department-wide procedures in financial and other matters.

Executive agencies

The executive agencies are:⁶

• Animal Health (launched on 2 April 2007), formerly the State Veterinary Service⁷
• Central Science Laboratory
• Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
• Government Decontamination Service
• Marine and Fisheries Agency
• Pesticides Safety Directorate
• Rural Payments Agency
• Veterinary Laboratories Agency
• Veterinary Medicines Directorate

Key delivery partners

The key delivery partners are:⁸

• British Waterways
• Environment Agency
• Forestry Commission
• Natural England (launched on 11 October 2006), formerly English Nature and elements of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service.⁹

A full list of departmental delivery and public bodies may be found on the Defra website.¹⁰

Defra in the English regions

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, the Marine and Fisheries Agency and the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate. Increasingly, a range of policies are communicated locally by Government Offices for English Regions.¹¹

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

• Environment Agency
• Internal Drainage Boards
• local 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".¹²

Under this overarching aim, Defra has five strategic priorities:¹³

• Climate change and energy.
• Sustainable consumption and production, including responsibility for the National Waste Strategy.
• Protecting the countryside and natural resource protection.
• Sustainable rural communities.
• A sustainable farming and food sector including animal health and welfare.

See also

• Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models
• Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Northern Ireland)
• Energy policy in the United Kingdom
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
• Environmental contract
• New Technologies Demonstrator Programme
• UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau
• United Kingdom budget
• Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department
• Waste Implementation Programme
• Cattle Health Initiative

External links

• Defra's official website
• English Nature's website
• JNCC's website
• Defra's wiki for formulating an environmental contract

References

v • d • e Departments of the United Kingdom Government Ministerial departments Attorney General's Office · Cabinet Office · Communities and Local Government · Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform · Department for Children, Schools and Families · Department for Culture, Media and Sport · Department of Energy and Climate Change · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills · Department for International Development · Department for Transport · Department for Work and Pensions · Department of Health · Foreign and Commonwealth Office · Government Equalities Office · HM Treasury · Home Office · Ministry of Defence · Ministry of Justice · Northern Ireland Office · Office of the Leader of the House of Commons · Scotland Office · Wales Office Non-ministerial departments Charity Commission for England and Wales · Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt · Crown Estate · Crown Prosecution Service · Export Credits Guarantee Department · Food Standards Agency · Forestry Commission · Government Actuary's Department · HM Revenue and Customs · National School of Government · Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills · Office of Fair Trading · Gas and Electricity Markets Authority · Office of Rail Regulation · Parliamentary Counsel Office · Postal Services Commission · Public Works Loan Board · Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office · Serious Fraud Office · Treasury Solicitor's Department · UK Statistics Authority · UK Trade & Investment · Water Services Regulation Authority

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 9 November 2008, at 21:48.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Department_for_Environment,_Food_and_Rural_Affairs

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.