Rural Payments and Services

We may at any time revise these terms and conditions without notice.

Please check these terms and conditions regularly, as continued use of the website after a change has been made is your acceptance of the change.

We will use information you provide to us to process any claims or applications you make.

We will also use your data for purposes connected with:

• administration of the Common Agricultural Policy
• administration of Scotland Rural Development Programme and other aid schemes
• monitoring and regulating the production and safety of food
• management of land and other environmental controls
• animal health and welfare
• plant health and bio-controls
• occupational health and welfare
• evaluation of the impact of scheme payments and to provide evidence and advice to support policy-making
• assessment and improvement of our services to ensure that they are of high quality, efficient, and responsive to our customers’ needs

We will pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other data sharing agreements.

We may also exchange information with other government departments for legal reasons.

If your business holds land or makes claims in another part of the UK, we will share relevant information relating to you and your holdings with other UK Paying Agencies in order to assess your eligibility and calculate any payments.

In order to fulfil the objectives referred to below, we will share your personal information with the following organisations (including any successor bodies):

• Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) for purposes connected with the Scotland Rural Development Programme and other environmental controls
• Food Standards Scotland for purposes connected with the regulation and monitoring and enforcement of food and feed hygiene standards
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for management of land and other environmental controls
• Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for purposes connected with animal and plant health and welfare
• organisations carrying out statistical and research activities, including the collection of agricultural data under section 78 (as amended) of the Agriculture Act (1947) and to meet European Commission Statistical Regulations
• organisations which audit the distribution of grants and subsidies in Scotland
• (contact information only) other organisations, for the purpose of improving or streamlining public service delivery, or to support public functions for which it is necessary for a public body to contact land managers and farmers

If you sign up to our newsletter, you are agreeing to us storing your email address securely within the European Economic Area (EEA) using an external service provider called Sender.

You can read Sender’s privacy policy using the link below.

Sender’s privacy policy

By signing up you are agreeing to allow us to use this email address to send you our regular newsletter, as well as other occasional content that is designed to inform our customers and help them access our service.

We will not use your contact details for any other purpose, and will not share your information with any third party. We will not link this data with other data we or others hold.

You can remove yourself from our distribution list at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any of our emails.

European legislation (Regulation 1306/2013) requires us to publish, on a website, information relating to all beneficiaries of Common Agricultural Policy Schemes.

This includes details of payments made from 2014 onwards. Where beneficiaries receive less than €1250 in total, the information is anonymous. Please see the link below for more details.

http://cap-payments.defra.gov.uk/

Whenever we use your personal data or share it with other organisations, it will be in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The act requires, among other things, that we do not use your data for purposes incompatible with those listed here, that we take appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity and security of your information and that we must supply you with a copy of the information we hold about you if you request it.

We must observe the provisions of the following legislation as may be amended from time to time:

• the Data Protection Act 1998
• the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
• the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and
• European Commission (EC) Regulation No 259/2008 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 410/2011

We may need to disclose personal information when required by law if, in our opinion, it is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process.

For further information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your rights to access the information we hold about you please get in touch.

Contact us

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information please email ceu@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at the following address:

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

We want to make sure your personal data is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.

Section	Change
Sharing your information	A clarification and alteration to who we share information with
Where your data is stored	Section removed
Publication of beneficiary data	New section
How we look after your information	More details added on your rights under the Data Protection Act

Previous version of this policy

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