United Kingdom Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Royal Arms ofHis Majesty's Government
Incumbent Emma Reynolds since 5 September 2025
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Style	Environment Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of thePrime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation	15 October 1970 (as Secretary of State for the Environment) 8 June 2001 (as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
First holder	Peter Walker (as Secretary of State for the Environment)
Salary	£159,038 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584MP salary)[2]
Website	ww2.defra.gov.uk

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Thesecretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, also referred to as theenvironment secretary, is asecretary of state in theGovernment of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for theDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The incumbent is a member of theCabinet of the United Kingdom.

The office holder works alongside the otherDefra ministers. The correspondingshadow minister is theshadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.

The secretary of state has two main responsibilities at theDepartment 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.

Secretaries of state for the environment (1970–1997) [edit]
Secretary of State[3]			Term of office		Party		Ministry
		Peter Walker MP forWorcester	15 October 1970	5 November 1972		Conservative	Heath
		Geoffrey Rippon MP forHexham	5 November 1972	4 March 1974		Conservative
		Anthony Crosland MP forGreat Grimsby	5 March 1974	8 April 1976		Labour	Wilson (III & IV)
		Peter Shore MP forStepney and Poplar	8 April 1976	4 May 1979		Labour	Callaghan
		Michael Heseltine MP forHenley	5 May 1979	6 January 1983		Conservative	Thatcher I
		Tom King MP forBridgwater	6 January 1983	11 June 1983		Conservative
		Patrick Jenkin MP forWanstead and Woodford	11 June 1983	2 September 1985		Conservative	Thatcher II
		Kenneth Baker MP forMole Valley	2 September 1985	21 May 1986		Conservative
		Nicholas Ridley MP forCirencester and Tewkesbury	21 May 1986	24 July 1989		Conservative
							Thatcher III
		Chris Patten MP forBath	24 July 1989	28 November 1990		Conservative
		Michael Heseltine MP forHenley	28 November 1990	11 April 1992		Conservative	Major I
		Michael Howard MP forFolkestone and Hythe	11 April 1992	27 May 1993		Conservative	Major II
		John Gummer MP forSuffolk Coastal	27 May 1993	2 May 1997		Conservative
Secretaries of state for the environment, transport and the regions (1997–2001) [edit]
		John Prescott[4] MP forKingston upon Hull East	2 May 1997	8 June 2001		Labour	Blair I
Secretaries of state for environment, food and rural affairs (2001–present) [edit]
		Margaret Beckett[5] MP forDerby South	8 June 2001	5 May 2006		Labour	Blair II
							Blair III
		David Miliband[6] MP forSouth Shields	5 May 2006	28 June 2007		Labour
		Hilary Benn[7] MP forLeeds Central	28 June 2007	11 May 2010		Labour	Brown
		Caroline Spelman[8] MP forMeriden	12 May 2010	4 September 2012		Conservative	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)
		Owen Paterson[9] MP forNorth Shropshire	4 September 2012	14 July 2014		Conservative
		Liz Truss[10] MP forSouth West Norfolk	15 July 2014	14 July 2016		Conservative
							Cameron II
		Andrea Leadsom[11] MP forSouth Northamptonshire	14 July 2016	11 June 2017		Conservative	May I
		Michael Gove[12] MP forSurrey Heath	11 June 2017	24 July 2019		Conservative	May II
		Theresa Villiers[13] MP forChipping Barnet	24 July 2019	13 February 2020		Conservative	Johnson I
​							Johnson II
		George Eustice MP forCamborne and Redruth	13 February 2020	6 September 2022		Conservative
		Ranil Jayawardena MP forNorth East Hampshire	6 September 2022	25 October 2022		Conservative	Truss
		Thérèse Coffey MP forSuffolk Coastal	25 October 2022	13 November 2023		Conservative	Sunak
		Steve Barclay MP forNorth East Cambridgeshire	13 November 2023	5 July 2024		Conservative
		Steve Reed MP forStreatham and Croydon North	5 July 2024	5 September 2025		Labour	Starmer
		Emma Reynolds MP forWycombe	5 September 2025	Incumbent		Labour

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Lists of government ministers of the United Kingdom
• Agriculture in England
• Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom
• Rural society in the United Kingdom
• 2001 establishments in the United Kingdom

• Pages using the EasyTimeline extension
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022