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What does Brexit mean for Defra?

In the last few weeks, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has seen its fair share of recent appointments including a new Secretary of State and a new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. This change at the top follows the recent restructuring of the department, so it is all change at Defra, but how will Brexit impact its work?

July 2016

The new team will have their work cut out as Defra is the department responsible for untangling the Common Fisheries Policy and translating this into a UK strategy and this no doubt will be at the heart of some tricky negotiations in Europe. The other elephant in the room will be the Common Agricultural Policy, the replacement of farm subsidies and how to maintain food production in the UK, so no small task for our friends in the Department.

Embedded within the current European legislation is the basis for most of our environmental policies and regulations, both terrestrial and marine, and not forgetting controls on the trade in endangered species.

When we look at the Brexit team in Defra the Minister of State, George Eustice, seems to have the two biggest and thorniest issues, Agriculture and Fisheries, which will demand his time, energy and focus over the coming two years. So how do we keep environmental policies in the mix?

It will be up to us to make sure that these important issues are not forgotten and for those in charge of the Brexit negotiations to be aware of concerns and issues and areas which may otherwise get overlooked. They also need to hear the volume of our concerns, as Fisheries and Agriculture will dominate. We need to be speaking to the heads of department and senior civil servants, as well as to those at Ministerial level.

We need to make sure that we are joined up and speak with one voice and list all of the important and key environmental legislation we want carried over into UK law. We also need to engage the Brexit Minister as well as other Ministers across the board, especially transport, to make sure nothing is lost. In my own personal view I would strongly recommend setting up an expert environmental NGO panel, comprising Link members, as well as legal experts, who would work closely with Defra and bring the expertise of the entire sector to bear. Only by having these expert panels, working with the Government on key areas of legislation, can we ever hope to protect all of the gains made over the last 40 years.

We must ensure the UK maintains a leadership role within the EU delegations to international bodies such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and CITES Conference of the Parties in the Autumn, in order to gain maximum protection for whales and endangered species respectively.

We cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers. The single most important thing we can do as a sector is to protect those gains or we could move back 40 years and have to fight every battle we have ever fought all over again.

The reality is that with Brexit we will see no sudden increase in budgets or capacity within Defra to help with all of the extra work. The Government will need our support and I would urge all of the environmental NGOs to assist or even consider secondments for short periods to help support a department under huge pressure. If we want Brexit to work we need to look to the future and make this reality a success, and I have every hope that we can do so.

David Cowdrey

Head of Policy and Campaigns, IFAW

Find David on Twitter @PadFootsguide

The opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership