Data from 13,000 farmers on stolen laptop

AN organisation set up to help improve the quality of the UK dairy market has had to apologise after it lost the personal details of thousands of farmers.

A laptop computer containing the names, addresses, quota details, transaction reference numbers and telephone numbers of some 13,000 farmers was stolen early last month from the car of an employee at DairyCo.

The information pertained to every single person who pays a levy to the organisation, up to 1,000 of whom are farmers based in and around Yorkshire.

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DairyCo has stressed to all of those affected that there were no financial details on the laptop, which has yet to be recovered, and said it was "very confident" none of the information could be used to defraud anyone.

The taking of the laptop does not look to have been targeted towards DairyCo and appears to be more of an opportunistic theft rather than an attempt to gain personal information.

The laptop was stolen on June 9 but the loss of the data only came to light yesterday when those affected received a letter from DairyCo to inform them of the theft, with some farmers raising concern about the amount of time it took for them to be told.

Philippa Stagg, head of communications at DairyCo, apologised and said the incident was "embarrassing".

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"When data is lost you have to go through a process," she told the Yorkshire Post.

"We obviously reported it straight away to the police and then we had to look ourselves into what was actually on the computer. It took us 24 hours to ascertain that and what this information could actually mean. Because we took the investigation so seriously it took time.

"We also had to look into who we could contact with regards to data protection We are only one step away from Defra so there are procedures in place – we did it as quickly as possible.

"The main thing was to ascertain what was there and if there was any issue with it.

"We did have a few complaints from people saying 'why

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have you written to us when there is nothing wrong?' but we have a duty of care to let people know we have lost this information."

Ms Stagg added that DairyCo had been in touch with Rural Payments Agency on the matter and that it was "confident" the data involved could not be used inappropriately.

The RPA suffered its own embarrassing losses of data last year when two packages containing details of farmers who had submitted Single Farm Payment claims went missing while being transferred between RPA offices around the country.

The matter was sufficiently serious to be raised in the Commons by the then Opposition.

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Martin Burtt, chairman of the National Farmers' Union dairy board in Yorkshire, called the loss of the latest data "a sign of the times".

"It is very concerning that private information such as quota could be out there," he said.

"Obviously things like names, addresses and telephone numbers are very much in the public domain but quotas are very much a private issue to the individuals concerned and it is worrying that it could be made public.

"It is not an everyday problem that a dairy farmer would come across."

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A recent data handling review at DairyCo identified holding such personal information on work laptops as a risk and measures had been agreed to wipe the information. However the theft took place before this could happen.

DairyCo is now reviewing its data handling processes and

has set up a helpline for any farmers with concerns on 02476 478887.

Bird-friendly farm succeeds

A farm run to demonstrate wildlife-friendly practices has seen the number of farmland birds almost treble in the past decade, figures from the charity managing the project showed today.

The RSPB, which owns Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire, said it had seen the number of birds increase by 177 per cent over 10 years, with particular successes with skylarks, linnets and yellowhammers.

The farm, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary today, is run along conventional lines and for a profit, but with 7.5 per cent of its 450 acres in environmental schemes.