§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if all details supplied by farmers for IACS purposes are treated by his Department as confidential documents; [36398]
(2) what measures he proposes to ensure that farm documents supplied for IACS purposes are not supplied by SOAFD to the wrong farms; and how many incidents or disclosure of IACS details have been made by SOAFD to the wrong farms since the scheme was introduced. [36399]
§ Mr. MacdonaldThe information submitted by a farmer as part of his IACS claim is subject to the Data Protection Act 1984 and the common law of confidentiality. The Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department will use IACS information only for the purposes of monitoring, evaluation or for research. Details supplied by farmers are released to third parties only with the permission of the original applicant.
There are electronic and manual checks in place whose aim is to ensure that the details supplied for IACS purposes are returned to the correct farmer. The Department have had no formal complaints that data have been sent to the wrong farm and believe that the number of occasions when things do go wrong is minimal.