The Environment Agency (Welsh: Asiantaeth yr Amgylchedd) is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Government that serves England and Wales.

The Environment Agency's stated purpose is, "to protect or enhance the environment, taken as a whole" so as to promote "the objective of achieving sustainable development" (taken from the Environment Act 1995, section 4). Protection of the environment relates to threats such as flood and pollution. The vision of the Agency is of "a rich, healthy and diverse environment for present and future generations".

The Environment Agency's remit covers the whole of England and Wales; about 15 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

Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British solicitor and Labour Party politician. She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood, having been the MP for Liverpool Garston from 1997 to 2010.

Until 2010, she held the rank of Minister of State at both the Government Equalities Office and the Ministry of Justice. She was previously a Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and Skills, and the Northern Ireland Office. After the 2010 general election she became the Shadow Solicitor General. On 8 October 2010, Eagle was announced as the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Ed Milliband's new shadow cabinet.

Eagle was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of a printworker, she was educated at St Peter's Church of England School in Formby and Formby High School, before attending Pembroke College, Oxford, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1983.

She then went to The College of Law, London, where she took her law finals in 1990.^{[citation needed]} She was a solicitor in the voluntary sector from 1983,^{[citation needed]} before she joined Brian Thompson & Partners in Liverpool as an articled clerk in 1990,^{[citation needed]} before becoming a solicitor with Goldsmith Williams in Liverpool in 1992,^{[citation needed]} and the senior solicitor at Steven Irving & Co also in Liverpool,^{[citation needed]} where she remained until her election to Westminster. Before entering parliament, Eagle concentrated on housing issues whilst a solicitor.^{[citation needed]}