Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs of Wales | |
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Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Materion Gwledig (Welsh) | |
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Welsh Government | |
Style | Welsh Cabinet Secretary |
Status | Cabinet Secretary |
Member of | |
Reports to | the Senedd and the First Minister of Wales |
Seat | Cardiff |
Nominator | First Minister of Wales |
Appointer | The Crown |
Term length | Five years Subject to elections to the Senedd which take place every five years |
First holder | AM |
Website | gov |
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs (Welsh : Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Materion Gwledig) is a member of the cabinet in the Welsh Government. The current officeholder is Huw Irranca-Davies since March 2024.
Name | Picture | Entered office | Left office | Other offices held | Political party | Government | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Economy | |||||||||
Christine Gwyther | ![]() | 12 May 1999 | 22 February 2000 | Labour | Michael government | [1] [2] [3] [4] | |||
Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development | |||||||||
Christine Gwyther | ![]() | 22 February 2000 | 23 July 2000 | Labour | Interim Morgan government | [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] | |||
Carwyn Jones | ![]() | 23 July 2000 | 16 October 2000 | Labour | Interim Morgan government | [4] [5] [6] [8] | |||
Minister for Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Carwyn Jones | ![]() | 16 October 2000 | Labour | First Morgan government | [4] | ||||
Minister for Assembly Business and Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Carwyn Jones | ![]() | 26 February 2002 | 17 June 2002 | Minister for Assembly Business | Labour | First Morgan government | [4] [10] | ||
Minister for Rural Affairs and Wales Abroad | |||||||||
Mike German | ![]() | 18 June 2002 | 1 May 2003 | Deputy First Minister of Wales | Liberal Democrat | First Morgan government | [4] | ||
Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside | |||||||||
Carwyn Jones | ![]() | 9 May 2003 | 2007 | Labour | Second Morgan government | [11] [12] | |||
Minister for Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Elin Jones | ![]() | 9 July 2007 | 11 May 2011 | Plaid Cymru | Fourth Morgan government (One Wales coalition of Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour) | [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] | |||
Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Lesley Griffiths | ![]() | 19 May 2016 | 3 November 2017 | Labour | Third Jones government | [18] [19] [20] | |||
Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Lesley Griffiths | ![]() | 3 November 2017 | 13 December 2018 | Labour | Third Jones government | [18] | |||
Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Lesley Griffiths | ![]() | 13 December 2018 | 13 May 2021 | Labour | First Drakeford government | [18] | |||
Minister for Rural Affairs, North Wales and Trefnydd | |||||||||
Lesley Griffiths | | 13 May 2021 | 20 March 2024 | Minister for North Wales | Labour | Second Drakeford government | [18] [21] [22] | ||
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs | |||||||||
Huw Irranca-Davies | ![]() | 21 March 2024 | Incumbent | Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change | Labour | Gething government | [23] | ||
The responsibilities of the post, as of December 2023, are to oversee: [18]
As a Welsh Minister, the holder is to have an annual salary of £105,701 for 2020–2021. [24]
When the assembly was established, it was expected that the first holder of the "agriculture and rural affairs portfolio" would be Ron Davies, Labour AM for Caerphilly and former Welsh Labour leader and Welsh Secretary. The shunning of Davies, by his successor Alun Michael, First Secretary of Wales, in Michael's cabinet, was described to be a disappointment and a surprise by Davies. [3] By 2000, there was also a "deputy minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment", with Delyth Evans AM holding the position in Rhodri Morgan's Labour–Liberal Democrate cabinet from 17 October 2000 to 31 July 2002. [4] [10]
During Plaid Cymru's Elin Jones' tenure in the role from 2007, [16] she became notable for implementing some decisions while Minister for Rural Affairs. She announced the mass cull of Wales’ badger population in an effort to reduce bovine TB. While in the role, Jones clashed with the UK Government by supporting the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, and opposed the idea of selling woodland as is the practice in England. [15] In 2010, Jones set out a horticulture plan while in the role. [25] Following the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election, Labour decided to form a government without Plaid Cymru, therefore Jones was not returned to the role. [26] [27] [28] Carwyn Jones, then first minister, was criticised in 2011 for not including a "rural affairs" role in his cabinet. [29]
The position was reestablished in 2016, following the appointment of Lesley Griffiths as Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Rural Affairs. [30]
Plaid Cymru is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
The Senedd, officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and Senedd Cymru in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees to certain taxes, and scrutinises the Welsh Government. It is a bilingual institution, with both Welsh and English being the official languages of its business. From its creation in May 1999 until May 2020, the Senedd was officially known as the National Assembly for Wales and was often simply called the Welsh Assembly.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Bridgend from 1999 to 2021.
Elin Jones is a Welsh politician who has served as the Llywydd of the Senedd since 2016. A member of Plaid Cymru, Jones has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ceredigion since 1999.
Thomas Alun Rhys Davies is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative party politician serving as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Blaenau Gwent since 2011, and formerly Mid and West Wales from 2007 to 2011. He has served in several Welsh government offices, including Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services, Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language, and Minister for Natural Resources and Food.
John Griffiths is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who previously served as Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development from 2011 to 2013. Griffiths has represented the constituency of Newport East in the Senedd since 1999.
Susan Lesley Griffiths, known as Lesley Griffiths, is a Welsh Labour politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice since 2024. She previously served as Trefnydd of the Senedd and Minister for North Wales from 2021 to 2024, and Minister for Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2024. She worked as a secretary to John Marek and the constituency assistant to Ian Lucas, successive Members of Parliament for Wrexham, and was elected to the Senedd from the Wrexham constituency in 2007. She has held a number of cabinet positions in the Welsh Government. In December 2009 she was appointed Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills.
Mark Drakeford is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2018 to 2024. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018 and Minister for Health and Social Services from 2013 to 2016. Drakeford was first elected as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Cardiff West in 2011 and is considered to be on the soft left of Labour.
Kenneth Christian Skates is a Welsh Labour politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport since 2024. Skates has represented the constituency of Clwyd South in the Senedd since the election of 2011. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, and worked as a journalist prior to becoming a politician. In September 2014 he became the deputy minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport. From May 2016 to December 2018 he was the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills, and was the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales until he stood down on 13 May 2021.
Rebecca Mary Evans is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office since 2024. She was previously Minister for Finance from 2018 to 2024. Evans has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Gower since 2016, and a Member for Mid and West Wales from 2011 to 2016.
The third Jones government was a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition government formed after the 2016 general election in Wales. On 14 October 2016, Dafydd Elis-Thomas left Plaid Cymru in order to support the coalition government and to give them a ruling majority; he later sat as an independent in the Senedd. The government was replaced by the Drakeford government on 13 December 2018, following the resignation of Carwyn Jones as First Minister the previous day.
The first Morgan government was formed on 16 October 2000 by Rhodri Morgan and a was a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, it was officially referred to as the 'Coalition Partnership'. It was preceded by the Interim Morgan administration, a Labour minority administration headed by Rhodri Morgan between February and October 2000.
The 2018 Welsh Labour Party leadership election took place between 9 November and 6 December 2018 to elect a successor to Carwyn Jones as leader of the Welsh Labour Party.
In the Senedd, the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the Official Opposition, the largest political party that is not in the Welsh Government. The Leader of the Opposition leads and appoints members of the Shadow Cabinet and as such is sometimes styled as the Shadow First Minister of Wales.
The Cabinet Secretary for North Wales is a member of the cabinet in the Welsh Government. The current officeholder is Ken Skates since March 2024.
The Gething government is the Labour-led government of Wales formed on 21 March 2024 following the appointment of Vaughan Gething as First Minister on 20 March 2024.
Ieuan Wyn Jones became Leader of the Opposition in Wales after being elected as President of Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales, on 3 August 2000. Jones had previously served in these roles in an acting capacity on the behalf of his predecessor Dafydd Wigley from December 1999 to February 2000. He formed his shadow cabinet on 9 August and, like his predecessor, appointed himself Shadow First Secretary of Wales and Shadow Assembly Secretary for Finance. Members of his shadow cabinet were initially known as shadow assembly secretaries until October 2000. From that month, members were known as shadow ministers, with Jones's titles also changing to Shadow First Minister of Wales and Shadow Minister for Finance, after a similar change was made to the names of ministerial posts in Rhodri Morgan's coalition government between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Jones's shadow cabinet was dissolved after the formation of a coalition government between Plaid Cymru and Morgan's Labour Party on 19 July 2007.
Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, formed her frontbench team of party spokespeople in the National Assembly for Wales on 11 December 2008 after she was elected to succeed Mike German as party leader on 8 December. She reshuffled her frontbench team after the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election before her party's seat share was reduced from five to one at the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election, with Williams becoming the party's sole assembly member (AM).
Ieuan Wyn Jones, the leader of Plaid Cymru, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople in the National Assembly for Wales on 25 May 2011 after the dissolution of his party's coalition government with Rhodri Morgan and Carwyn Jones' Welsh Labour following the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election. Jones had previously led a shadow cabinet before entering coalition from 2000 to 2007, when his party had served as the Official Opposition since the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election.