Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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 England. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co-operation between it and the Scottish Government^[1] and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales,^[2] 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.

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 8000 core personnel, as of January 2004. 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^[3]:

• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — The Rt Hon. Hilary Benn, MP
  • Minister of State for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health — The Rt Hon. The Lord Rooker
  • Minister of State for the Environment — Phil Woolas, MP
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State — Joan Ruddock, MP
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for the South-East — Jonathan Shaw, 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:^[4]

• Animal Health (launched on 2 April 2007), formerly the State Veterinary Service^[5]
  • 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:^[6]

  • 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^[7].

    A full list of departmental delivery and public bodies may be found on the Defra website.^[8]

    Defra in the 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.^[9]

    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".^[10]

    Under this overarching aim, Defra has five strategic priorities:^[11]

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

    Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) programme

    Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 and Part III of the Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 placed a statutory duty on all local authorities throughout the UK to periodically review and assess air quality within their area. This includes consideration of current and likely future air quality against air quality objectives, established for the protection of human health, set out in the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (AQS). Atmospheric dispersion modelling plays a key role in the review and assessment process.

    Local authorities work towards achieving the AQS objectives that have been prescribed in regulation through the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) program. The LAQM program is under the aegis of Defra. To assist and support the local authorities in their review and assessment work, Defra issued an LAQM Technical Guidance document in February 2003.^[12]

    Defra also retained the services of the Casella Stanger consultancy company (now a part of the Bureau Veritas Group) to establish and manage a Dispersion Modelling Helpdesk^[13] to further support the local authorities in their work.

    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
    • UK topics
    • Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department
    • Waste Implementation Programme

    External links

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

    References

    1. ^ Concordat between MAFF and the Scottish Executive
    2. ^ Concordat between MAFF and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales
    3. ^ Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Ministers
    4. ^ "Defra's Executive Agencies", Chapter 5, Departmental Report 2006 (from the Defra website)
    5. ^ "Launch of Animal Health", news release by Animal Health, 2 April 2007 (from the Defra website)
    6. ^ "Working with others: Defra's delivery partners", Chapter 6, Departmental Report 2006 (from the Defra website)
    7. ^ "New champion for the environment launches", press release by Natural England, 11 October 2006 (from the Natural England website)
    8. ^ Delivery Landscape Map
    9. ^ Government Offices for the English Regions (from the Government Offices website)
    10. ^ "My priorities for Defra", David Miliband's letter to the Prime Minister, 11 July 2006
    11. ^ "Delivering the Essentials of Life: Defra’s Five Year Strategy", Annex B
    12. ^ Technical Guidance, LAQM.TG (03)
    13. ^ Defra Dispersion Modelling Helpdesk

    
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