Data Protection Act 1988 - Fair Processing Notice (Data Protection Statement) for the GB Poultry Register
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This is the revised Fair Processing Notice (Data Protection Statement) for the GB Poultry Register which reflects Ministers’ decisions in 2008 on extending use of this Register for certain specific purposes in England and Wales. It came into effect on 1st August 2008.
Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and Animal Health take our responsibilities to handle and safeguard your personal information seriously. We take care to ensure that the processing of information, including sharing personal data, is consistent with the principles of the relevant legislation, including the Data Protection Act 1998.
The purpose of this Fair Processing Notice is to inform you of how Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and Animal Health (an executive agency of Defra) will use and handle your information on the GB Poultry Register as required by the Act. It outlines the purposes for which the information, including personal data, in the Register may be used, disclosed or shared. Animal Health’s general fair processing notice [available here] only applies to information held on the GB Poultry Register to the extent that the uses identified in the general notice are consistent with the uses identified in this notice.
Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government are the data controllers in respect of information on poultry premises in England, Wales and Scotland respectively. The data is processed by Animal Health on their behalf.
Use and storage of your personal information
Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and Animal Health will use your personal information for the purposes identified in this statement.
Personal information held by Animal Health is made available to Local Authorities to fulfil their obligations under the provisions of Avian Influenza legislation on behalf of Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government.
Animal Health may also make personal information available to other public bodies to fulfil their public functions in connection with the purposes identified below.
The purposes for which personal information may be used are as follows:
Animal disease control and associated activities
- Modelling of the possible spread of avian notifiable diseases and their causative agents to inform risk assessment and estimate possible impacts of these diseases on the poultry industry.
- Identifying regions and poultry sectors at most risk to enable development of appropriate risk-based responses to prevent and control the spread of avian notifiable diseases.
- More effective and targeted disease surveillance, including baseline surveys and surveillance and control programmes in respect of zoonoses and other endemic diseases of poultry.
- Contingency Planning Exercises that are based on accurate information about the location of different types of commercial poultry premises.
- To improve our communications to help keep you informed of developments, offer advice to protect your poultry and/or to manage an outbreak of these diseases.
- To assist in the protection of your health and safety or that of your employees working in close proximity to poultry in the event of an increased risk of avian influenza and/or during outbreaks. In particular, the information will be passed to the Department of Health, NHS Trusts, NHS Boards (in Scotland), the Health Protection Agency, Health Protection Scotland, and the Health and Safety Executive for the purposes of risk assessment, contingency planning, communicating important health information to you and your staff, and providing appropriate health care if the need arises.
- To improve planning, response and recovery arrangements by Category 1 and 2 Responders in the multiple agency response to avian disease outbreaks.
- To provide information as necessary to the EC to substantiate UK claims for compensation from the EU in the event of a disease outbreak.
Other activities on poultry premises
- More effective and targeted sampling of poultry meat and associated medicines records to check for residues of veterinary medicines.
- More effective and representative selection of premises to undertake animal welfare visits.
- To improve planning, response and recovery arrangements by Category 1 and 2 Responders in civil emergencies affecting poultry premises where specific actions may need to be taken by these Responders to protect the poultry from harm.
Additional uses
- To remove poultry-related questions from the annual agricultural census form. Instead, government statisticians would use information already available in the Poultry Register.
- To inform the work of government statisticians and economists in the development of evidence-based policy.
- To facilitate (non-commercial) ad-hoc surveys as part of Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government’s regional and national activities towards achieving their strategic objectives, including for example England’s Sustainable Food and Farming Strategy and GB’s Animal Health and Welfare Strategy. This work may include the provision of advice and information to individual poultry keepers; and
- To inform the development of future customer contact management and registration as part of Animal Health’s Business Reform Programme.
Additional possible releases of information
Animal Health may be required to release information, including personal data and commercial information, on request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 or Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. However, Animal Health will not permit any unwarranted breach of confidentiality nor will we act in contravention of our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you wish to obtain a copy of your personal data held by Animal Health, please address your request together with supporting evidence (if appropriate) to:
Data Protection Request,
Animal Health Corporate Centre,
Government Buildings,
Whittington Road,
Worcester
WR5 2LQ.
Email: corporate.centre@animalhealth.gsi.gov.uk
Fax: 01905 768851
Please note that you may be charged a fee of £10 for this service. You may also be asked to provide proof of your identity and for information that will help us locate the data you are seeking.
Animal Health’s public service guarantee on data handling, which gives details of your rights in respect of the handling of your personal data, is available on the Animal Health website here.
If you believe that any of the information we hold concerning you is incorrect or out of date, please provide us with the accurate information in writing together with supporting evidence (if appropriate). You should address your correspondence to:
Poultry Register,
PO Box 30,
Inverkip Road,
Greenock,
Renfrewshire,
PA16 0AH.
Category 1 responders are those organisations at the core of emergency response (eg, emergency services, local authorities, health bodies and the Environment Agency); Category 2 responders are “co-operating bodies” who are heavily involved in incidents that affect their sector (eg, Health and Safety Executive, transport and utility companies).
See Chapter 6 of Defra’s Emergency Response Plan for exotic animal diseases which sets out the role of Category 1 responders - police, local authorities, Health Protection Agency and the Environment Agency – (and others) in the response here