Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
(on the advice of the Prime Minister)
- 15 October 1970:
(as Secretary of State for the Environment) - 8 June 2001:
(as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(as Secretary of State for the Environment)
(including £86,584 MP salary)[2]
The secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, also referred to as the environment secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The office holder works alongside the other Defra ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.
Responsibilities
The secretary of state has two main responsibilities at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to:
- bear overall responsibility for all departmental issues.
- lobby for the United Kingdom in other international negotiations on sustainable development and climate change.
List of environment secretaries
Secretaries of state for the environment (1970–1997) | ||||||||
Secretary of State[3] | Term of office | Party | Ministry | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Peter Walker MP for Worcester | 15 October 1970 | 5 November 1972 | Conservative | Heath | |||
![]() | Geoffrey Rippon MP for Hexham | 5 November 1972 | 4 March 1974 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Anthony Crosland MP for Great Grimsby | 5 March 1974 | 8 April 1976 | Labour | Wilson (III & IV) | |||
![]() | Peter Shore MP for Stepney and Poplar | 8 April 1976 | 4 May 1979 | Labour | Callaghan | |||
![]() | Michael Heseltine MP for Henley | 5 May 1979 | 6 January 1983 | Conservative | Thatcher I | |||
![]() | Tom King MP for Bridgwater | 6 January 1983 | 11 June 1983 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Patrick Jenkin MP for Wanstead and Woodford | 11 June 1983 | 2 September 1985 | Conservative | Thatcher II | |||
![]() | Kenneth Baker MP for Mole Valley | 2 September 1985 | 21 May 1986 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Nicholas Ridley MP for Cirencester and Tewkesbury | 21 May 1986 | 24 July 1989 | Conservative | ||||
Thatcher III | ||||||||
![]() | Chris Patten MP for Bath | 24 July 1989 | 28 November 1990 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Michael Heseltine MP for Henley | 28 November 1990 | 11 April 1992 | Conservative | Major I | |||
![]() | Michael Howard MP for Folkestone and Hythe | 11 April 1992 | 27 May 1993 | Conservative | Major II | |||
![]() | John Gummer MP for Suffolk Coastal | 27 May 1993 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | ||||
Secretaries of state for the environment, transport and the regions (1997–2001) | ||||||||
![]() | John Prescott[4] MP for Kingston upon Hull East | 2 May 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | Blair I | |||
Secretaries of state for environment, food and rural affairs (2001–present) | ||||||||
![]() | Margaret Beckett[5] MP for Derby South | 8 June 2001 | 5 May 2006 | Labour | Blair II | |||
Blair III | ||||||||
![]() | David Miliband[6] MP for South Shields | 5 May 2006 | 28 June 2007 | Labour | ||||
![]() | Hilary Benn[7] MP for Leeds Central | 28 June 2007 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | Brown | |||
![]() | Caroline Spelman[8] MP for Meriden | 12 May 2010 | 4 September 2012 | Conservative | Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.) | |||
![]() | Owen Paterson[9] MP for North Shropshire | 4 September 2012 | 14 July 2014 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Liz Truss[10] MP for South West Norfolk | 15 July 2014 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | ||||
Cameron II | ||||||||
![]() | Andrea Leadsom[11] MP for South Northamptonshire | 14 July 2016 | 11 June 2017 | Conservative | May I | |||
![]() | Michael Gove[12] MP for Surrey Heath | 11 June 2017 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | May II | |||
![]() | Theresa Villiers[13] MP for Chipping Barnet | 24 July 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Conservative | Johnson I | |||
| Johnson II | |||||||
![]() | George Eustice MP for Camborne and Redruth | 13 February 2020 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Ranil Jayawardena MP for North East Hampshire | 6 September 2022 | 25 October 2022 | Conservative | Truss | |||
![]() | Thérèse Coffey MP for Suffolk Coastal | 25 October 2022 | 13 November 2023 | Conservative | Sunak | |||
![]() | Steve Barclay MP for North East Cambridgeshire | 13 November 2023 | 5 July 2024 | Conservative | ||||
![]() | Steve Reed MP for Streatham and Croydon North | 5 July 2024 | Incumbent | Labour | Starmer |
Timeline of environment secretaries
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/h1mlkfshx4l9wramxcqpg8oe5h3o9d0.png)
References
- ^ "Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23" (PDF). 15 December 2022.
- ^ "Pay and expenses for MPs". parliament.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
- ^ "Secretary of State for Environment". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Lord Prescott". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon David Miliband". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Dame Caroline Spelman MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Michael Gove MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Theresa Villiers replaces Gove as Defra secretary". Farmers Weekly. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.