Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

United Kingdom Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Royal Arms of His 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 the Prime 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 £86,584 MP salary) [2]
Website	ww2.defra.gov.uk

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

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
		John Prescott [4] MP for Kingston upon Hull East	2 May 1997	8 June 2001		Labour	Blair I
		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	5 September 2025		Labour	Starmer
		Emma Reynolds MP for Wycombe	5 September 2025	Incumbent		Labour

Timeline of environment secretaries

References

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