DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn has made a statement to the
House of Commons in response to Farmers Weekly's story about
theRural Payments Agency losing farmers' bank
details.
Here is the transcript:
“I wish to inform the House that following routine inventory
checks earlier this year, 38 RPA data backup tapes and one CD were
unaccounted for. 35 have since been accounted for.
“Of the remainder, one tape and the CD did not contain
personal protected data, but the two remaining tapes potentially
contained partial data in code. 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.
“I want to reassure farmers that there is no evidence that
the tapes are in the public domain; that 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.
“I will arrange for a copy of the investigation report to be
placed in the Library of the House.”
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