Concern mounts over lost famers details

Oct 31 2009 by Kim Carmichael, The Journal

A GOVERNMENT agency based in the North East has come under further fire for losing the personal details of thousands of farmers.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn this week admitted the Rural Payments Agency had lost 38 data backup tapes and one CD en route to its offices in Newcastle Business Park.

The three tapes and the CD remain unaccounted for, including two tapes potentially containing 100,000 farmers’ names, addresses and bank details.

Mr Benn only found out about the breach on Thursday, even though RPA officials knew about it six months ago.

Last night Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “Farmers will be horrified that the RPA cannot locate two tapes which may contain farmers’ personal data; but the Secretary of State has assured farmers that the risk of useable personal data having been lost is low.

“We are also very concerned that although the tapes appear to have been identified as missing earlier this year, farmers have only now been told about this issue.

“The Secretary of State said that he was informed about this issue yesterday and has told the House of Commons at the first opportunity, but we want to know why this was not reported to the Secretary of State and to the industry as soon as the tapes were known to be missing. There are questions here that need answering.

“Farmers will be extremely worried about the vulnerability of their data and in particular their bank details, which farmers have been required to provide to the RPA.

“For that reason, we will be looking for the strongest assurances from the RPA that everything is being done to locate these tapes.”

Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert has said the silence “looked like a cover-up”.

He said: “It appears that officials knew about another Government data loss months ago but failed to inform the Secretary of State until yesterday when the press obtained the story.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Rural Affairs Secretary Tim Farron said: “It beggars belief that civil servants took six months to inform farmers affected by this staggering loss.

“Yet again the Government has had to own up to a potentially catastrophic loss of personal data, this time at an agency already damned by its scant regard for taxpayers’ money.”

Alnwick farmer Stoker Frater (pictured top), who runs Abberwick Farm, echoed the concerns.

He said: “This sums up the RPA and the lax way they deal with things. They have a shocking past record of inefficiency. Losing the information and then people only finding out now is chaos.

“The fact that data has been lost is bad, but what’s worse is once again they have made a mistake.”

It appears officials knew months ago but failed to inform the Secretary of State until yesterday