Commentary on Sections Part 3 - Matters Relating to Agriculture and Agricultural Products Chapter 1 - Collection and sharing of data Section 31 - Provision of required information and limitations on its processing
180.Section 31 stipulates that information provided in response to a requirement may be processed only for the purposes specified in the requirement.
181.Subsection (3) provides that this restriction on processing applies to the recipient of the information, and anyone to whom it is subsequently disclosed. (But, in the case of a person to whom the information is subsequently disclosed, the information cannot be processed in ways that are contrary to the terms of the disclosure, even where this type of processing would be permitted by the terms of the original requirement.)
182.Subsection (5) sets out matters that may be dealt within the requirement to provide information.
183.Subsection (6) obliges the requirement to specify the types of processing to which the information supplied may be subjected and the forms in which information supplied may be disclosed.
184.Subsection (7) sets out that information provided in response to a requirement may not be subjected to types of processing, or disclosed in any form, other than as specified in the requirement (unless the requirement specifies circumstances in which other forms of processing or disclosure may occur).
185.Subsection (8) specifies that, where there is a proposal for information provided under a requirement to be disclosed in a form specified in, or permitted by, the requirement, the requirement in subsection (9) applies.
186.Subsection (9)(a) provides that where the proposal is to disclose the information otherwise than in anonymised form, the person proposing the disclosure must consider whether disclosure in that form would, or might, prejudice the commercial interests of any person.
187.Subsection 9(b) provides that, if the person proposing the disclosure considers that the disclosure in that form (i.e. non-anonymised) would or might prejudice the commercial interests of any person, the disclosure must instead be in an anonymised form.
188.The effect of subsection (10) is that there is an exception to the requirement imposed by subsection (9)(b): if the Welsh Ministers consider it is in the public interest for the information to be disclosed in a non-anonymised form, the disclosure may take place in non-anonymised form, so long as the form of disclosure is permitted by the requirement under which the information was provided.
189.Subsection (11) defines what is meant by “processing”, in relation to information.