Our governance
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-06)

As a non-departmental public body we are governed by our board and team of directors.

The Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body. The board is directly responsible to government ministers for all aspects of our organisation and performance. We are accountable to Parliament through ministers.

Board members

Our board has 9 non-executive members:
- Alan Lovell (Chair)
- Lilli Matson
- Dr Stewart Davies
- Ines Faden da Silva
- Mark Suthern
- Sarah Mukherjee
- Brittany Harris
- Maya Leibman
- Jonathan Watts
All are appointed by the Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The board meets a minimum of 4 times a year. It delegates day-to-day management to the Chief Executive and staff.

Our executive directors’ team
- Philip Duffy, Chief Executive
- Sarah Chare, Executive Director of Local Operations
- Tamara Bruck, Executive Director of Strategy, Transformation and Assurance
- John Leyland, Executive Director of Environment and Business
- Caroline Douglass, Executive Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management
- Laura Milton, Director of Legal and Audit Services
- Anna Caffyn, (Defra) Director of Finance
- Matt Cornford, Director of Strategy
- Verity Zurita, Deputy Director for Governance and Engagement
- Gareth Liptrot, (Defra) Deputy Director of Human Resources
- Chris Davis, Deputy Director Communications
- ManFai Tang, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion representative
Working with partners

We invite partners and organisations with an interest in what we do to meet our board so that they can have their say on our decisions.

You can also read our board agendas and papers on this page.

Board meetings

Board agendas and papers:

15 February 2023 board agenda and papers (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/647622ef103ca6000c039681/EA-agenda-and-papers-15-Feb-2023-board-meeting.pdf) (PDF, 282 KB, 16 pages)

7 December 2022 board agenda and papers (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/647622c45f7bb700127fa1c5/EA-agenda-and-papers-07-Dec-2022-board-meeting.pdf) (PDF, 323 KB, 16 pages)

For details of previous board meetings visit the National Archives (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230911153341/https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency/about/our-governance).

Board minutes

Board minutes:

16 September 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690c82c868fffdd77951aae8/16_September_2025_Environment_Agency_board_meeting_-__minutes.pdf) (PDF, 224 KB, 10 pages)

12 August 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690c82c8b5e5a06aefd46b1f/12_August_2025_Environment_Agency_board_meeting_-_minutes.pdf) (PDF, 160 KB, 4 pages)

11 June 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690c82c8dad669f061d46b28/11_June_2025_Environment_Agency_board_meeting_-_minutes.pdf) (PDF, 198 KB, 12 pages)

7 May 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6851867177f2679faa195410/7_May_2025_Board_meeting_minutes.pdf) (PDF, 168 KB, 7 pages)

31 March 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683efa7002114f18921e4550/EA_board_minutes_31_March_2025.pdf) (PDF, 130 KB, 4 pages)

18 March 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683efa462c163eb35f1e4541/EA_board_minutes_18_March_2025.pdf) (PDF, 177 KB, 11 pages)

February 2025 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67eeb590199d1cd55b48c793/EA-board-minutes-February-2025.pdf) (PDF, 139 KB, 6 pages)

December 2024 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67eeb578632d0f88e8248cf8/EA-board-minutes-December-2024.pdf) (PDF, 159 KB, 9 pages)

November 2024 board minutes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67eeb5579eae202448299cd6/EA-board-minutes-November-2024.pdf) (PDF, 136 KB, 4 pages)

For details of previous board minutes visit the National Archives (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250528161542/https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency/about/our-governance).