RPA lost farmers’ personal data, Benn admits

Mr Benn told the House of Commons today (Thursday, October 29), that routine inventory checks earlier this year revealed that 38 RPA data backup tapes and one CD were unaccounted for. While 35 have since been found, three remain unaccounted for. 

Of those, one tape and a CD did not contain personal protected data, but the two remaining tapes ‘potentially contained partial data in code’, Mr Benn admitted.

“Tapes of this sort can only be read with specialist equipment and detailed technical knowledge.  Furthermore, one of the two tapes was known to be faulty and had been reported as such since it could not be read,” he said. 

He sought to reassure farmers that there is ‘no evidence that the tapes are in the public domain’.

He said a forensic investigation was carried out, in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines, and that officials concluded ‘there was only a low risk of any usable personal data having been lost’.

Mr Benn said he had only been told about the missing data this week but refuted suggestions that Defra and RPA officials had sought to cover up the incident.

He said the decision not to inform Ministers was made ‘in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines’ because the investigation showed the data was ‘in code that cannot be read’.

The revelation is yet another in a long line of embarrassments for the RPA, which was recently lambasted in a National Audit Office report over its handling of the Single Payments Scheme (SPS).

Shadow Defra Secretary Nick Herbert responded to Mr Benn’s statement, made during Defra questions, by condemning the ‘bungling’ RPA for its continuing failings. MPs also raised questions about the future of the agency in light of Defra’s current review of it.

Mr Benn said he took responsibility for the agency and acknowledged that its ‘history is not a happy one’ but said he would not do anything that jeopardised the improvements it has made in delivering the SPS. 

Country Land and Business Association president Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said the revelation as ‘disappointing’.

“Government has assured us that there is no risk of Single Payment recipients’ personal information falling into the wrong hands,” he said.

“However, this will do nothing to encourage rural land managers to make more use of modern communication systems as the Government clearly wants.”

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