Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, DBE, PC (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015.

She was initially a member of the Campaign Group but resigned in 1988 in protest at Tony Benn's decision to challenge Neil Kinnock for the leadership.

She returned to government when Gordon Brown appointed her Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in June 2007 with responsibility for biodiversity, climate change adaptation, waste and domestic forestry.

In the June 2009 reshuffle she was promoted to Minister of State level, with responsibility for energy policy, which she held until the fall of the Labour Government in 2010.

During her time in Parliament Ruddock was responsible for successfully introducing two private members bills on fly tipping and ensuring local authorities provided doorstep recycling.