To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information databases his Department (a) maintains and (b) uses which do not contain personal information. (284398)

DEFRA maintains and uses a wide range of databases reflecting its diverse policy and regulatory functions. A full list could be provided only at disproportionate cost to the Department.

However, DEFRA’s Information Asset register does provide details of many of the databases managed by the Department. This register is available on the Department’s website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/opengov/defra/available/iar/index.htm

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what categories of personal information on members of the public will be held on each of his Department’s and its agency’s databases expected to become operational in the next five years; what estimate he has made of the likely number of individuals’ details each such database will hold when fully operational; and if he will make a statement. (286496)

Information about the categories of personal information on members of the public that will be held on each of the Department’s and its agency’s databases expected to become operational in the next five years and estimates of the likely number of individual’s details that each dataset will hold when fully operational can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Routine assurance of database developments during the business planning cycle ensures that any planned databases containing personal information are identified before development commences and referred to the departmental data protection team to ensure that they adhere to the Data Protection Act.

Moreover, following the publication of the cross government data handling review in June 2008, staff establishing new projects and programmes that hold significant amounts of personal data are obliged to conduct privacy impact assessments.