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United Kingdom

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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^[update].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

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