Agriculture Bill: consultation analysis

Impacts on data protection and privacy

Impacts on data protection and privacy identified were:

• Data management: There was wide ranging agreement in open responses of the general need for data to be well managed and to be collected and managed in line with the relevant legislation, particularly GDPR.
• Concerns about anonymity: Some respondents expressed concerns that individual farmers could be identified by data published about them, particularly data on the payments they are receiving.
• Concerns about owners and access: Several respondents felt that it was unclear who would own the data collected for this policy and who it would be shared with.
• Distrust of Government: A few respondents expressed a general distrust in government and a reluctance to share their personal data at no cost.
• Too much data gathered: A few respondents argued that the proposals will require excessive data collection, making the process complicated and bureaucratic.
• Transparency: A few respondents highlighted increased transparency as a positive outcome of the proposals.

Impact on people with protected characteristics

Most responses did not give any examples of how the proposals in the consultation may impact on those with protected characteristics.

Some of the specific points raised were:

• There was a lack of focus on the impacts or inclusion of women throughout the consultation document
• The impact of additional red tape on those with dyslexia
• Increased technological solutions impacting older people who may not have confidence with technology
• Little detail in the consultation in terms of support for young people
• Insufficient detail in the consultation document on the impact on protected characteristics and that analysis needs to take place.