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Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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Elizabeth II

Formation
  
8 June 2001

Inaugural holder
  
Margaret Beckett

Website
  
ww2.defra.gov.uk/

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Style
  
The Right Honourable (Formal prefix) Environment Secretary

Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or informally Environment Secretary is a United Kingdom 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 and the Regions.

Since July 2016, the post has been held by Andrea Leadsom. Leadsom was criticised for making a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference on 4 January 2017, that stated farming to be an industry that had been 'around for as long as mankind itself', seemingly unaware of humanity's extensive pre farming existence as hunter-gatherers.

Responsibilities

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

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

    • References

    Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA