Guidance

Defra's consultations and call for evidence exercises: privacy notice

Updated 26 February 2025

This privacy notice explains how we use your personal data when you take part in consultation or call for evidence exercises where we ask for your views, opinions and experiences on proposed legislation or policy.

If you have any queries about the content of this privacy notice, contact the Defra consultation coordinator at consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk.

We use Citizen Space to run our consultations and call for evidence exercises.

Who collects your personal data

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the controller for the personal data we collect:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

If you need further information about how we use your personal data and your associated rights you can contact the data protection manager at data.protection@defra.gov.uk or at the above address.

The data protection officer is responsible for checking that we comply with legislation. You can contact them at DefraGroupDataProtectionOfficer@defra.gov.uk or at the above address.

What personal data we collect and how it is used

We may collect your:

• name
• contact details
• views, opinions and experiences

We may sometimes ask for more sensitive personal data such as your:

• age
• education or skills
• health or disability
• level of income
• location
• observed behaviour
• race and ethnicity

We will take your response into account, as far as possible, with all other responses to the consultation or call for evidence exercise.

If you consent and provide contact details, we may contact you directly inviting you to give your views, opinions and experiences in response to a new or follow up consultation or call for evidence exercise.

We may publish at the end of the consultation or call for evidence exercise all information contained in your response, however this is received, for others to see.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please explain why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your information technology system will not be regarded as binding on us.

How your personal data has been obtained, if from a third party

On occasion, we may contact your direct to invite you to participate in a consultation or call for evidence exercise. Where this happens, we will tell you where we obtained your contact information from.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

The lawful basis for processing your personal data is:

• your consent
• a task carried out in the public interest – this is to allow us to carry out our work as a government department – this may be applicable at a point during the processing, when consent in is no longer the lawful basis for processing, for example, when your personal data has been incorporated into its analysis and can no longer be identified

Consent to process your personal data

Where the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you can normally withdraw your consent, and have personal data removed. You can do this using the contact details provided by us when you take part in the consultation.

However, you may not be able to withdraw your consent once we have incorporated it into its analysis. If this is the case, we will tell you when you take part in the consultation or call for evidence exercise.

Who we share your personal data with

We will publish a summary of responses to a consultation or call for evidence on GOV.UK; this will not include any personal data.

The owners of Citizen Space, Delib Ltd, will also have access to your personal data. Read Delib’s privacy notice for information on how they use your personal data.

On occasion we will share your responses with other organisations that are supporting the consultation or call for evidence exercise. Details of this will be made available in the consultation or call for evidence exercise documentation.

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.

How long Defra holds personal data

We will keep your personal data for up to 2 years after the end of the consultation or call for evidence exercise.

What happens if you do not provide the personal data

We will not be able to gather your views, opinions and experiences. You will not be able to contribute to the specific goals of the consultation or call for evidence exercise.

Use of automated decision-making or profiling

The personal 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)

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.

Your rights

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

Consent

• the right to be informed
• the right of access
• the right to rectification
• the right to erasure
• the right to restrict processing
• the right to data portability
• rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Public task  

• the right to be informed
• the right of access
• the right to rectification
• the right to restrict processing
• the right to object
• rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Information about your individual rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), is available on the Information Commissioners Office website.

Complaints

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

Personal information charter

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