London

Discredited by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic and still reeling from the effects of foot-and-mouth disease, Britain's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) has finally been put out of its misery.

In a government reorganization that quickly followed the Labour party's overwhelming re-election on 7 June, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that MAFF will be replaced by a new department that will seek an integrated approach to managing agriculture and the environment.

The new Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) will now coordinate and fund research previously supported by MAFF, as well as work concerned with the environment, rural development, countryside, wildlife and sustainable development. These additional functions are inherited from the former Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, which has been broken up. DEFRA will be headed by Margaret Beckett, a former head of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The rest of Britain's apparatus for managing research and science policy will remain largely intact, after an election campaign in which science-related issues played little visible role. Lord Sainsbury, who as science minister is responsible for day-to-day science policy and oversees the research councils that provide the main support for academic research in Britain, was expected to stay in the same job. Patricia Hewitt, formerly the minister responsible for electronic commerce, will replace Stephen Byers as head of the DTI, giving her Cabinet-level responsibility for science and technology.

David Shannon, chief scientist with the former MAFF, describes the plans for DEFRA as “ambitious”. He says its creation was necessary to resolve conflicts in the way agricultural and environmental issues were handled.

But some point out that this joint responsibility could cause the new body problems, and question whether the changes have been adequately thought out. “I think there is a serious danger that this is just window-dressing,” says a senior official at one scientific society.