by Anna Burdett

Published at 14:07, Friday, 27 November 2009

THE Rural Payments Agency has launched an investigation after details of nine Cumbrian hill farmers were lost in the post.

Staff in Reading send a recorded delivery parcel to Penrith every Friday relating to Hill Farm Allowance claims but a fortnight ago, nine files were misplaced at Parcelforce’s Coventry depot.

Staff in Penrith realised some files were missing last Monday when they received the package and they contacted the farmers affected, according to a spokesman.

Each file contained names, addresses, contact numbers and details of field sizes and number of livestock.

A Defra spokesman said there was no protected personal data in the files.

Last month Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced in Parliament that the RPA had mislaid data tapes containing details of thousands of farmers. He said most of the tapes had been recovered.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk