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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co-operation between it and the Scottish Executive and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective countries. It was formed in June 2001, when the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was merged with part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and with a small part of the Home Office. The department was created after the perceived failure of MAFF to deal adequately with an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease. The department had about 8000 core personnel, as of January 2004. The department's main building is Nobel House in Smith Square, SW1. Another significant Defra building is located in Whitehall Place and is unique because it is the only building designed by a government architect, Clifford Edmund Mee OBE ARIBA, of the then Ministry of Works in the whole Whitehall area.
Ministers After the 2005 General Election, the Ministry was restructured, with one fewer Ministers of State and one further Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State; but this change reverted after the May 2006 reshuffle. The current make-up of the department's ministers is: Permanent Secretary Helen Ghosh is the current Permanent Secretary. Departmental agencies and sponsored bodies Defra regions Defra has eight regional departments: Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) program Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 and Part III of the Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 placed a statutory duty on all local authorities throughout the UK to periodically review and assess air quality within their area. This includes consideration of current and likely future air quality against air quality objectives, established for the protection of human health, set out in the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (AQS). Atmospheric dispersion modelling plays a key role in the review and assessment process. Local authorities work towards achieving the AQS objectives that have been prescribed in regulation through the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) program. The LAQM program is under the aegis of DEFRA. To assist and support the local authorities in their review and assessment work, DEFRA issued an LAQM Technical Guidance document in February 2003. DEFRA also retained the services of the Casella Stanger consultancy company (now a part of the Bureau Veritas Group) to establish and manage a Dispersion Modelling Helpdesk to further support the local authorities in their work. See also | ||||||||
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