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

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...

, and the successor to the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The post was originally named President of the Board of Agriculture and was created in 1889...

and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions

Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions was a UK Cabinet position created in 1997, with responsibility for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions ....

Responsibilities

The Secretary of State has three main responsibilities at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

, to:

bear overall responsibility for all Departmental issues.
represent the UK at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council and at the EU Environment Council.
lobby for the UK in other international negotiations on sustainable development and climate change.

Secretaries of State, 2001–present

Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
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...	8 June 2001	5 May 2006	Tony Blair Tony Blair Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
David Miliband David Miliband David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...	5 May 2006	27 June 2007
Hilary Benn Hilary Benn Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...	28 June 2007	11 May 2010	Gordon Brown Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
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...	12 May 2010		David Cameron David Cameron David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

Responsibilities

Secretaries of State, 2001–present

See also