AgricultureID

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Defra

The United Kingdom’s ministerial department for the environment, food, farming and fisheries. Defra states that it is responsible for improving and protecting the environment, and that it supports the UK’s food, farming and fishing industries. It is supported by a large number of agencies and public bodies, several of which hold the operational regulatory functions.

Jurisdiction
United Kingdom
Government level
National
Authority type
Department
Status
Active

Visit the official websitehttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs

Responsibilities

Each item below is recorded from the authority’s own published material, not inferred from its name.

  • Farm policy

    States that it supports the UK’s food, farming and fishing industries, and publishes agricultural development policy.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

  • Agricultural subsidiesStatutory

    Publishes and administers funding for farmers and land managers.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

  • Animal healthStatutory

    Issues guidance and control measures for notifiable animal disease, including avian influenza and bluetongue.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

  • Import export certificationStatutory

    Publishes the requirements for bringing food and animal products into Great Britain.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

  • Rural development

    States an aim of sustaining thriving rural communities.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

  • Fisheries

    Covers fisheries alongside food and farming within the same departmental remit.

    Source: Defra — Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Registries and databases

Official systems this authority administers, as recorded in the AgricultureID registry corpus.

  • Great Britain and Northern Ireland Variety ListsVariety catalogue

    Awarded variety listings for agricultural and vegetable species on the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Variety Lists

  • Pesticides Register of Authorised Plant Protection ProductsPesticide product registry

    Plant protection products authorised for use in the United Kingdom

All official registries

Why this body is recorded

Official name of the body responsible in United Kingdom.

Official source
Source page
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
What the source says
“Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs”(official name)
Standing
Verified against the sourcelast verified 2026-08-19
  • Defra is supported by separate agencies and public bodies; several operational regulatory functions (for example plant health and rural payments) sit with those bodies rather than the department itself, and are not asserted here.
  • Agricultural competence is devolved across the United Kingdom; this record does not describe the devolved administrations’ separate authorities.

Evidence shows what an official source published and what AgricultureID made of it. The two are always shown separately: quoted text is the source’s own, and a normalised value is AgricultureID’s vocabulary, not a quotation.

Sources and verification

  • Official GOV.UK organisation page resolved with HTTP 200 and states the department is “responsible for improving and protecting the environment… We also support our world-leading food, farming and fishing industries”, listing farming funding, animal disease and food-import policy areas.

    Verified 2026-08-19 against https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs · domain classification: Official government portal

Important limitations

  • Defra is supported by separate agencies and public bodies; several operational regulatory functions (for example plant health and rural payments) sit with those bodies rather than the department itself, and are not asserted here.
  • Agricultural competence is devolved across the United Kingdom; this record does not describe the devolved administrations’ separate authorities.

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