Your guide to the department's cast of ministerial characters, and what’s in their in-trays
One could be forgiven for thinking the environment department is not going to receive much attention in this parliamentary session with a solitary bill to its name: the water special measures bill. But the bill – which was tabled in September and proposes immediate fines and even jail for water company bosses in a bid to tackle pollution – is bound to be a high-profile one. And if you look beyond primary legislation there’s a rich range of issues for Defra to engage with, such as the development of environmental land management schemes, the implementation of the deposit-return scheme and meeting the legal commitment to halt biodiversity decline by 2030.
New secretary of state Steve Reed held the shadow environment brief from 2023, having previously served as shadow justice secretary and communities secretary respectively. He has called for a land management scheme that supports moves towards regenerative farming, nature recovery and food production and also supports planning reform to help farmers diversify and plug their clean energy into the national grid. Reed’s hinterland includes being the son of a professional footballer, a graduate of English literature and a stint as leader of Lambeth Council from 2006 to 2012. Reed – who married his social-worker partner in 2022 – is patron of LGBT Labour and was listed as number 37 in the Independent on Sunday’s 2010 ‘Pink List’.
Reed’s hinterland includes being the son of a professional footballer, a stint as leader of Lambeth Council, and ranking 37 on the Independent on Sunday’s ‘Pink List’ in 2010
New minister of state for food security and rural affairs Daniel Zeichner will also be familiar with his beat, having served as a shadow Defra minister since 2020. In that role, he expressed support for a national action plan on pesticides and called for government to use its purchasing power to ensure that more food in hospitals and prisons is locally produced.
Emma Hardy, former PPS to Keir Starmer when he was shadow Brexit secretary, became shadow minister for flooding, oceans and coastal communities in 2023 and is now junior minister for water and flooding. Serving alongside her as junior minister for nature is Mary Creagh, who returned to parliament in 2024 after having lost her seat in the 2019 general election. Creagh burnished her environmental credentials with a long stint serving as then-Labour leader Ed Miliband’s shadow environment secretary and later, from 2016 to 2019, as chair of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.
Rounding out the team is Lords minister Baroness Sue Hayman, who has served as opposition spokesperson for environment, food and rural affairs in the upper chamber since 2020. She played a key role in holding the previous government to account during the passing of the Environment Act, the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act and various pieces of animal welfare legislation.
Read up on ministers in other departments here