Guidance

Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector privacy notice

Updated 29 October 2025

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioner-for-the-tenant-farming-sector-role-and-services/commissioner-for-the-tenant-farming-sector-privacy-notice

This privacy notice explains how the Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector (CTFS) will use and manage your personal data.

If you have any queries about the content of this privacy notice, email CTFS@defra.gov.uk.

1. Who collects your personal data

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra) is the controller for the personal data we collect, as the CTFS sits within Defra.

If you need further information about how Defra uses your personal data and your associated rights you can contact the Defra data protection manager  by email at data.protection@defra.gov.uk.

The data protection officer for Defra is responsible for checking that Defra complies with legislation. You can contact them by email at: DefraGroupDataProtectionOfficer@defra.gov.uk.

2. What personal data we collect and how it is used

We collect your:

  • name
  • contact details
  • details and information relating to the issues you raise
  • your personal data will be used to identify you, investigate the issues and communicate with you

3. Lawful basis for processing your personal data

The lawful basis for processing your personal data is consent.

The processing of your personal data is based on consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing CTFS@defra.gov.uk.

5. Who we share your personal data with

Issues raised with the CTFS may need cross-government involvement to fully investigate them. In these cases, we will share anonymised personal data with the relevant government organisation

We may be asked to share your personal data during this investigation. If so, we will contact you for authorisation before disclosing them.

If you’ve exhausted our complaint procedure and are dissatisfied with the outcome, you may escalate your complaint to the Defra Service Standards Adjudicator at  service-standards.adjudicator@defra.gov.uk who may refer your case to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

In these cases, we have a legal duty to share your personal details and any relevant information it holds in relation to the complaint with these organisations when requested.

We will treat your information considerately and confidentially. However, we may need to contact you to request your consent to share some information about you and your issue with the person or persons you have raised an issue about. We will only do so if we have received your consent to do so.

If you do not want us to share the information you have given us with the person or persons you have raised an issue about, we will not do so. However, this may limit our ability to investigate your issue any further.

We respect your personal privacy when responding to access to information requests. We only share information when necessary to meet the statutory requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

6. How long we hold personal data

We will keep your personal data for 7 years from issue resolution.

7. What happens if you do not provide the personal data

If you do not provide your personal data, we may not be able to investigate the issue and provide you with a full and final response.

8. Use of automated decision-making or profiling

The personal or business data you provide is not used for:

  • automated decision making (making a decision by automated means without any human involvement)
  • profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual)

9. Transfer of your personal data outside of the UK

We will only transfer your personal data to another country that is deemed adequate for data protection purposes. 

10. Your rights

Based on the lawful processing above, your individual rights are:

More information about your individual rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

11. Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time.

12. Personal information charter

Our personal information charter explains more about your rights over your personal data.

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