Guidance

Customer registration and call recording privacy notice

Updated 19 May 2025

This notice tells you about personal data collection and processing at point of registration for the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

1. Purpose for processing

RPA maintains and updates your customer record to make sure it’s accurate and up to date. As part of ensuring accuracy, we may record telephone calls. We use your personal data:

• if your activities require us to contact you
• when recording telephone calls made to and from the Rural Payments Agency call centre
• to process a claim you have submitted
• to manage an agreement you have signed up to
• to manage a licence we issue in relation to agricultural goods, or to manage animals where you are the registered keeper
• to inform you of funding opportunities, scheme updates and future farming initiatives

2. Why we are able to process your personal data

The law allows us to process your personal data under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). We are allowed to process personal data when we need to carry out a public task.

Additional law acts as the legal bases for the schemes and services RPA offers. These will be referenced in a separate privacy notice relating to each of the schemes and services.

3. What personal data we process

We collect and process the personal data asked for during the registration process for the service you are applying for, plus information on any specific matter you may have raised in any contact with us, including:

• name
• address
• email address
• bank account information
• county parish holding (CPH) number
• Single Business Identifier (SBI)
• details of anyone who acts for you, for example an agent
• the details of your query, which could relate to applications, payment amounts, land changes or penalties
• confirmation of your identity, for example security question responses

If you do not give us this information, we cannot accept you as a customer.

If it’s reasonably disclosed to us, we will record Special Category Data, for example as part of a complaint or appeal, or in relation to pilot schemes or assisted digital support. Please refer to our Appropriate Policy Document Special Category Personal Data and Criminal Offence Data for more information.

If you receive a call from our call centre, we will tell you if it’s being recorded at the beginning of the call. All other calls we make will not be recorded.

When you call our call centre, you will hear a pre-recorded message, asking you for the reason for your call. Our Natural Language Processing (NLP) software will identify keywords in your response. If you are calling from a mobile number, you may receive a text message with a link to information that could assist with your query. This part of the call is not recorded.

When you use the online registration service, we put small files (known as ‘cookies’) onto your computer. The cookies used on this service are not used to identify you personally.

We may process your personal data including your email address in any questions or feedback you send to us. We may also use your information to contact you about future grants and updates to farming policy that would be relevant to you.

We may also process your personal data for quality assurance or training purposes to help us improve the service we provide.

4. Your responsibility with other people’s personal data

If you’ve included personal data about other people in your registration, you must tell them. You must provide them with a copy of this privacy notice so that they know how their personal data will be used.

5. Where your personal data is stored

We store, transfer and process your personal data on our servers in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU).

6. How long we keep your personal data

We keep your customer register data for as long as you are an active RPA customer. Once you are no longer an active RPA customer, we deactivate your customer record. For example, if you were a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) customer that would be 11 years after your last claim is paid. If you have a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement that would be 7 years after the end of your agreement and the last payment has been made.

We keep call recordings for 6 months for training purposes, or to make sure that the information you provide is accurately recorded on our systems.

In exceptional circumstances, we may keep recordings for longer, for example, where information emerges to indicate that the content of the call may be significant, or if you have requested a copy of the call.

Please refer to our Personal Information Charter and the section ‘How long we will keep data’ for information on any potential exceptions.

7. Who we share your personal data with

We share your registration personal data with:

• Defra group: Animal and Plant Health Agency, Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Environment Agency, Veterinary Medical Directorate, Forestry Commission, Marine Management Organisation
• other government departments: HM Land Registry, Ministry of Defence, Office of National Statistics, Cabinet Office, Highways Agency, UKSA, Hydrographic Office, National Parks, Research Councils, for example, Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Ordnance Survey
• local authorities
• agri-technology sector, for example, farm software providers
• environmental consultancies
• drainage boards
• charities including Wildlife Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), National Trust, Woodland Trust, West Country Rivers Trust
• conservation partnerships, for example, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
• developers and construction
• utilities for example, National Grid, United Utilities, Welsh Water, Portsmouth Water
• academic research
• land agents
• farmers
• land managers
• in certain circumstances, we share your customer registration data with specialist third party suppliers who have the tools and skills to assure the validity of the data provided -  in these cases, the contract agreed will include safeguards and restrictions ensuring effective data handling

Call recording data is shared within RPA.

8. Your rights

To request copies of call recordings you will need to submit a Subject Access Request. You can read how to do this in the ‘How do I ask to see the data you hold about me?’ section of our RPA Personal Information Charter.

Read our Personal Information Charter to find out more information about your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

9. How to make a complaint

If you have concerns about how RPA uses your personal data, please read how to get in touch or make a complaint.