Gareth Baynham-Hughes
Biography
Gareth has been Director of Marine and Fisheries at Defra since September 2025. Before that, he was Director of Animal and Plant Health and Welfare for six years.
In his current role, Gareth has responsibility for Defra’s work on thriving and productive seas. This means a focus on marine environment recovery and restoration, including internationally, supporting economic growth in marine sectors through modern and effective environmental regulation and sponsorship of the fishing and aquaculture sectors, including trade.
Gareth has been delighted to return to a role on fisheries – he worked on these issues previously in London and Brussels, where he spent nearly five years as the UK’s fisheries attaché at the UK Permanent Representation to the EU – and is enjoying the new challenges around wider marine environmental issues.
Gareth became Defra representative Non-Executive Director in October 2025
Non-executive Director, Cefas
- Non-executive director of corporate management board