Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs explained

Post:	Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Insignia:	Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government) (2022).svg
Insigniacaption:	Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent:	Steve Reed
Incumbentsince:	5 July 2024
Department:	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Style:	Environment Secretary The Right Honourable
Type:	Minister of the Crown
Status:	Secretary of State
Reports To:	The Prime Minister
Seat:	Westminster
Nominator:	The Prime Minister
Appointer:	The Monarch
Termlength:	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation:	15 October 1970: 8 June 2001:
Salary:	£159,038 per annum ^[1] (including £86,584 MP salary)^[2]
First:	Peter Walker

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	1970	1972		Conservative	Heath
		Geoffrey Rippon	1972	1974		Conservative
		Anthony Crosland	1974	1976		Labour	Wilson
		Peter Shore	1976	1979		Labour	Callaghan
		Michael Heseltine	1979	1983		Conservative	Thatcher I
		Tom King	1983	1983		Conservative
		Patrick Jenkin	1983	1985		Conservative	Thatcher II
		Kenneth Baker	1985	1986		Conservative
		Nicholas Ridley	1986	1989		Conservative
Thatcher III
			Chris Patten	1989	1990		Conservative
		Michael Heseltine	1990	1992		Conservative	Major I
		Michael Howard	1992	1993		Conservative	Major II
		John Gummer	1993	1997		Conservative
Secretaries of state for the environment, transport and the regions (1997–2001)
		John Prescott^[4]	1997	2001		Labour	Blair I
Secretaries of state for environment, food and rural affairs (2001–present)
		Margaret Beckett^[5]	2001	2006		Labour	Blair II
Blair III
			David Miliband^[6]	2006	2007		Labour
		Hilary Benn^[7]	2007	2010		Labour	Brown
		Caroline Spelman^[8]	2010	2012		Conservative	Cameron–Clegg
		Owen Paterson^[9]	2012	2014		Conservative
		Liz Truss^[10]	2014	2016		Conservative
Cameron II
		Andrea Leadsom^[11]	2016	2017		Conservative	May I
		Michael Gove^[12]	2017	2019		Conservative	May II
		Theresa Villiers^[13]	2019	2020		Conservative	Johnson I
					Johnson II
		George Eustice	2020	6 September 2022			Conservative
		Ranil Jayawardena	6 September 2022	25 October 2022		Conservative	Truss
		Thérèse Coffey	25 October 2022	13 November 2023		Conservative	Sunak
		Steve Barclay	13 November 2023	5 July 2024		Conservative
		Steve Reed	5 July 2024	Incumbent		Labour	Starmer

Timeline of environment secretaries

Notes and References

1. Web site: Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23 . 15 December 2022.
2. Web site: Pay and expenses for MPs . 15 December 2022 . parliament.uk.
3. Web site: Secretary of State for Environment . . 23 October 2017.
4. Web site: Lord Prescott . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
5. Web site: Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
6. Web site: Rt Hon David Miliband . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
7. Web site: Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
8. Web site: Rt Hon Dame Caroline Spelman MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
9. Web site: Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
10. Web site: Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
11. Web site: Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
12. Web site: Rt Hon Michael Gove MP . UK Parliament . 23 October 2017.
13. Web site: Theresa Villiers replaces Gove as Defra secretary . 25 July 2019 . Farmers Weekly . 25 July 2019.