§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the names and addresses of(a) individuals and (b) limited companies who receive more than £10,000 in direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy; and if she will make a statement. [160169]
§ Alun MichaelThe Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is bound by commercial confidentiality in its dealings with its customers, whether sole tracers or farmers or corporations, breach of which by disclosing information relating to the affairs of individual traders or farmers or corporations would expose the RPA to the liability of legal proceedings in court.
In relation to individual farmers or traders, information which is of a personal nature, such as individual payments to such persons, is personal data which is protected from voluntary disclosure under the Data Protection Act 1998. While the RPA can release global figures relating to payments, which do not identify individual persons, including corporations, it is unable to release individual figures without incurring the liabilities under the two principles referred to.