The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1995 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), with responsibilities relating to the protection and enhancement of the environment in England The EA provides Flood and coastal risk management, Activities to reduce likelihood of flooding Activities to reduce consequences of flooding, Environment and business, Climate change, Air quality, Land quality, Water quality, Water resources, Fishing, Navigation, Other marine responsibilities, Equipment and Fleet, Consultation and influencing, Advice to Government, Regional organisation The Environment Agency's remit covers almost the whole of England, about 13 million hectares of land, 22, 000 miles (35, 000 km) of river and 3, 100 miles (5, 000 km) of coastline seawards to the three-mile limit which includes 2 million hectares of coastal waters. In a sharing arrangement with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), it also exercises some of its functions over parts of the catchments of the River Tweed and the Border Esk which are, for the most part, in Scotland. Similarly, in an arrangement with NRW, political and operational areas are not coterminus. NRW staff exercise responsibility for parts of the River Dee (Wales) in England and EA staff exercise operational responsibility for those parts of the River Severn catchment in Wales. Structure The Environment Agency employs around 11, 200 staff. It is organised into eight directorates that report to the chief executive. There are two "policy and process" directorates. One deals with Flood and Coastal Risk Management and the other with Environment and Business. These are backed up by the Evidence directorate. The fourth directorate is a single Operations "delivery" unit, responsible for national services, and line management of all the Regional and Area staff. The remaining directorates are central shared service groups
