Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the government department responsible for environmental

Environmental quality

Environmental quality is a set of properties and characteristics of the environment, either generalized or local, as they impinge on human beings and other organisms...

protection, food production and standards, agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Concordat

Concordat

A concordat is an agreement between the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a sovereign state on religious matters. Legally, they are international treaties. They often includes both recognition and privileges for the Catholic Church in a particular country...

s set out agreed frameworks for co-operation between it and the Scottish Government, the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

and with representatives from the Northern Ireland Assembly

Northern Ireland Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...

, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations. Defra also leads for Britain 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

Department of Energy and Climate Change

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is a British government department created on 3 October 2008 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the functions of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...

was created on 3 October 2008 to take over the last responsibility.

Creation

It was formed in June 2001 under the leadership of Margaret Beckett

Margaret Beckett

Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...

, when the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and from 1919 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries...

(MAFF) was merged with part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and with a small part of the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

. The department was created after the perceived failure of MAFF to deal adequately with an outbreak

2001 UK foot and mouth crisis

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms in most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an eventually successful attempt to...

of Foot and Mouth disease. The Department had about 9 000 core personnel, . The Department's main building is Nobel House on Smith Square

Smith Square

Smith Square is a square in the Westminster district of London, just south of the Palace of Westminster. The centre of the square is occupied by St John's, Smith Square, a Baroque church now used as a concert hall...

, SW1.

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

Department of Energy and Climate Change

, headed by Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband

Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...

Ministers

The Defra Ministers are as follows:

	Rank	Portfolio
The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman Caroline Spelman Caroline Alice Spelman is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who has served as the Member of Parliament for Meriden in the West Midlands since 1997... MP	Secretary of State Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is a UK cabinet-level position in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the successor to the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport...	Overall responsibility, Common Agricultural Policy Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 .... reform
The Rt Hon James Paice James Paice James Edward Thornton "Jim" Paice MP is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire, and was first elected in the 1987 general election... MP	Minister of State	Agriculture and food
Richard Benyon Richard Benyon Richard Henry Ronald Benyon MRICS is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Newbury since 2005 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since May 2010.-Early life:Benyon was born in... MP	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State	Natural environment, fisheries
Lord Taylor of Holbeach John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Holbeach John Derek Taylor, Baron Taylor of Holbeach, CBE is a British Conservative politician and current junior minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.-Biography:...	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State	Environmental regulation, sustainable development, waste and recycling

Key		Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Key		Liberal Democrat Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

The Permanent Secretary

Permanent Secretary

The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

is Bronwyn Hill.

Responsibilities

Defra is responsible for British Government policy in the following areas

Adaptation to global warming
Adaptation to global warming
Adaptation to global warming and climate change is a response to climate change that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems to climate change effects. Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon, climate change and its effects will last many years, and adaptation will...
Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
Air quality
Animal health
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...

and animal welfare
Animal welfare
Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
Conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
Chemicals
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

and pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...

s
Fisheries
Flooding
Food
Food policy
Food policy is an area of public policy concerning the production, distribution, and consumption of food. The policy consists of setting goals for food production, processing, marketing, availability, access, utilization and consumption, and describes the processes for achieving these goals...
Forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
Hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
Inland waterways
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
Land management
Land management
Land management is the process of managing the use and development of land resources. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include organic agriculture, reforestation, water resource management and eco-tourism projects.-See also:*Sustainable land management*Acreage...
Marine
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...

policy
National parks
National parks of England and Wales
The national parks of England and Wales are areas of relatively undeveloped and scenic landscape that are designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949...
Noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
Plant health
Rural development
Rural development
Rural development in general denotes economic development and community development actions and initiatives taken to improve the standard of living in non-urban neighbourhoods, remote villages and the countryside...
Sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
Waste management
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...
Water management
Water management
Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. In an ideal world. water management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands...

Some policies apply to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

alone due to devolution

Devolution

Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...

, while others are not devolved and therefore apply Britain

United Kingdom

as a whole.

Executive agencies

The executive agencies

Executive agency

An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...

are:

Animal Health
Animal Health
Animal Health is the UK government's executive agency primarily responsible for ensuring that farmed animals in Great Britain are healthy, disease-free and well looked after....

(launched on 2 April 2007), formerly the State Veterinary Service
State Veterinary Service
The State Veterinary Service was an executive agency of the UK government department the . It was the government's delivery agent responsible for animal health and welfare in England, Scotland and Wales....
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...
Forest Research
Forest Research
Forest Research is the research agency of the Forestry Commission, a government department in the United Kingdom. Its core roles are to provide the evidence base for UK forestry practices and to support innovation. It has research and office facilities within Alice Holt Forest, near Farnham in...
Forest Enterprise
Food and Environment Research Agency
Food and Environment Research Agency
The Food and Environment Research Agency, a new Defra executive agency was vested on 1 April 2009.-History:The agency was formed by bringing together the Central Science Laboratory at Sand Hutton, the Plant Health Division / Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate in York, the Plant Variety Rights...

(until April 2009 was called the Central Science Laboratory
Central Science Laboratory
The Central Science Laboratory was an executive agency of the UK government department the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs . It specialises in the sciences underpinning agriculture for sustainable crop production, environmental management and conservation and in food safety and...

)
Rural Payments Agency
Rural Payments Agency
The Rural Payments Agency is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs .The RPA was created on 16 October 2001 from the amalgamation of the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce and the Defra Paying Agency as a single paying agency for most Common...
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
The Veterinary Laboratories Agency is an executive agency of the UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs . It carries out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and veterinary scientific research for government and commercial organisations...
Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Veterinary Medicines Directorate
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs seeking to protect public health, animal health, the environment and promoting animal welfare by assuring the safety, quality and efficacy of veterinary medicines in the United...

In June 2010, Caroline Spelman announced that Animal Health and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency would be merged as soon as possible. The new "Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency" will come into being on 1 April 2011.

Key delivery partners

The key delivery partners are:

British Waterways
British Waterways
British Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...
Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
Marine Management Organisation
Marine Management Organisation
The Marine Management Organisation is an executive non-departmental public body established and given powers under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009...

(launched on 1 April 2010, incorporates the former Marine and Fisheries Agency)

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

Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...

(launched on 11 October 2006), formerly English Nature
English Nature
English Nature was the United Kingdom government agency that promoted the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006...

and elements of the Countryside Agency
Countryside Agency
The Countryside Agency in England was a statutory body set up in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The Agency was formed by merging the Countryside Commission and the Rural Development Commission...

and the Rural Development Service
Rural Development Service
The Rural Development Service was formerly part of the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs . It ceased to exist on 1 October 2006 following the creation of Natural England.- History :...

.

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

Natural England

Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...

, the Rural Payments Agency

Rural Payments Agency

The Rural Payments Agency is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs .The RPA was created on 16 October 2001 from the amalgamation of the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce and the Defra Paying Agency as a single paying agency for most Common...

, Animal Health

Animal Health

Animal Health is the UK government's executive agency primarily responsible for ensuring that farmed animals in Great Britain are healthy, disease-free and well looked after....

and the Marine Management Organisation

Marine Management Organisation

The Marine Management Organisation is an executive non-departmental public body established and given powers under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009...

. Increasingly, a range of policies are communicated locally by Government Offices for English Regions.

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

Operating authority

An operating authority is a body empowered under the Land Drainage Act 1991 or Water Resources Act 1991 to undertake land drainage or flood protection work in England and Wales. Operating authorities include internal drainage boards, the Environment Agency and local authorities....

Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
Internal drainage board
Internal Drainage Board
An internal drainage board is a type of operating authority which is established in areas of special drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers to undertake work to secure clean water drainage and water level management within drainage districts...

s
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

World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

(WWF) has called "one planet living".

Under this overarching aim, Defra has five strategic priorities:

Climate change and energy.
Sustainable consumption and production, including responsibility for the National Waste Strategy
National Waste Strategy
The National Waste Strategy is a policy of the government of the United Kingdom, and in particular the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , intended to foster a move to sustainability in waste management within Great Britain.-Structure:...

.
Protecting the countryside and natural resource protection.
Sustainable rural communities.
A sustainable farming and food sector including animal health and welfare.

External links

Video clips

DEFRA YouTube channel

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