Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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As defined by Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the 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, the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales[2] and with representatives from the Northern Ireland Assembly,[3] 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 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.The Department's main building is Nobel House on Smith Square, 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, headed by Ed Miliband.
Responsibilities
Defra is responsible for British Government policy in the following areas:
agriculture
air quality
animal health and welfare
biodiversity
conservation
chemicals and pesticides
fisheries
flooding
food
forestry
hunting
inland waterways
land management
marine policy
national parks
noise
plant health
rural development
sustainable development
waste management
water management
Aim & 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".
Under this overarching aim, Defra has five strategic priorities:
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.
