Digital Passport industry communications

Summary points from meetings of the three digital passport (DP) groups are presented below. 

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Sent on behalf of the Digital Passport Leadership Group

Leadership Group releases updated Digital Passport business case

The Digital Passport Leadership Group has confirmed the next steps in its Digital Passport engagement programme as it releases the latest, updated version of the business case to the combinable crops supply chain.

The initial, industry wide consultation on the passport closed in early February 2024 and generated almost 80 questions. Since then, the Leadership Group, supported by the Development and Data Groups, has been reviewing comments, as well as discussing and updating the business case.

Significant, material changes have been made to the business case with the principal areas of change as follows:

  1. Feedback of quality data to growers is now an obligation – a benefit of a single system solution to grain passport data.
  2. Financials have been honed, with additional upside if government funding for the development of the system is secured.
  3. A process has been developed allowing growers with no computer or smartphone to use digital passports via the telephone helpdesk.

With the revised business case now published and released in time for the annual Cereals event, the Leadership Group is encouraging the associations to review with their membership to ascertain support for it. Formal responses from industry bodies are expected in early summer, with more information following harvest 2024.

A Leadership Group spokesperson said:

“We appreciate industry’s invaluable feedback and patience while we’ve worked through and resolved what were often complex issues.

“Publication of the revised business case is an important milestone, which reflects the benefit of a collective development approach we have adopted. We will maintain dialogue with the supply chain as development work continues, with the key next steps securing funding and planning for system implementation.”

The revised business case, along with a full set of answers to all questions raised is available on the Digital Passport home page.

The wide-ranging consultation brought the realisation that industry is not faced with a choice between paper or digital passports. Instead, the choice is whether it’s preferable to have a single, universal industry-wide digital passport, or several different digital passports introduced by processors and merchants to meet their own individual requirements. The Leadership Group believe that the revised business case provides the most comprehensive proposal for an industry-wide digital passport.

The adoption of a digital passport will be founded on key developments over the coming months, including:

  1. Securing grant funding to cover the build, rollout, and initial running costs.
  2. Agreement from the AHDB C&O Sector Council that they are prepared to take on responsibility for long-term ownership, management, and funding on behalf of all levy payers.

Work on the immediate priorities, funding and long-term system ownership will be advanced during summer 2024, with a post-harvest update to industry due when these discussions conclude.

The Leadership Group is made up of industry representative bodies, including the National Farmers Union, Agricultural Industries Confederation, Maltsters Association of Great Britain, UK Flour Millers and National Farmers Union Scotland.

Sent on behalf of the Digital Passport Leadership Group

Next steps for the combinable crops digital passport

Following the industry-wide consultation for the combinable crops digital passport there has been an intensive period reviewing the wide-ranging feedback received.

Headlines from the consultation are:

  • Over 400 grower business responses
  • Over 50 merchant, haulier, and processor business responses
  • 80 new questions and feedback points to be reviewed
    The feedback received can be grouped into broad categories. These are of fundamental aspects of what the passport is for, technical queries over specific aspects of grain deliveries, developmental questions on how the system will work and data led questions over governance, security, and data-sharing

There was also a consistent theme from responses of the need for greater clarity and explanation regarding the costs and benefits. The examination of these costs will form a significant part of the review process. The Leadership Group are clear that all questions raised will be addressed and responses communicated in full.

To ensure that all aspects of the consultation feedback are comprehensively reviewed the Leadership Group will start to discuss key questions over the coming weeks. The Data and Development Groups who supported the creation of the business case through summer 2023 will be called upon to bring their own expertise into the process.

Alongside this, the Leadership Group will also offer the opportunity for individual businesses or groups to discuss their feedback and questions one to one so that any business-specific points can be covered. This will lead to a timeline (outlined below) aiming for completion of the consultation feedback process by late spring. Once this process is completed, the business case can be updated, and industry will be provided with a clear and comprehensive log of all updates relating to the consultation feedback.

The longer-term decision on funding and development will be made once this initial process of business case development and review is complete.

Digital grain passport timeline

Notes for editors

Switching to a single, industry-wide digital passport as set out in the consultation is expected to:

  • Improve data integrity and security
  • Provide scope for real-time assurance checks
  • Reduce costs across the supply chain
  • Increase confidence and credibility to growers, buyers' customers, stakeholders, and regulators

The industry Leadership Group is chaired by AHDB Board member, Stephen Briggs. It meets weekly, and comprises:

  • Merchants and animal feed business – represented by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
  • Farmers – represented by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and NFU Scotland
  • Receivers – represented by UK Flour Millers, the Maltsters Association and Seed Crushers and Oilseed Processors

For more information, visit https://ahdb.org.uk/digital-passport

Read the full business case

View the Digital Passport frequently asked questions

Sent on behalf of the Digital Passport Leadership Group

Combinable Crops Digital Passport Consultation provides invaluable feedback

The industry-wide consultation for the combinable crops digital passport was successfully concluded last Friday, 2 February 2024. The three-month period of open feedback achieved its main aim – prompting wide discussion about the proposed business case, with several hundred responses received, whether from representative associations or individuals.

The process engaged stakeholders across the supply chain, with feedback received from growers, hauliers, merchants, and processors.

The discussion and feedback included challenging the assumptions and figures on which the Business Case was based. The main topics of feedback centred on the usage and process of the proposed system, with a focus on connectivity and availability of devices. A range of views were also gathered on the proposed costs and benefits of the system.

Now that the consultation has closed, the Leadership Group will collate and analyse the feedback from all channels. There are hundreds of replies to sift through from the online portals which have been available, as well as those directly sent from businesses.  

Once these responses have been drawn together, the industry Development and Data groups will convene in early March.  These groups will review the key points of feedback related to their sections of the business case, adding more detail, and discussing changes that are needed to be made.

Once this refining process is complete and the business case renewed, the Leadership Group will decide on next steps and how they wish to proceed.

Industry will be kept updated throughout this process, with regular communications over the coming weeks.

Notes for editors:

  • Switching to a single, industry wide digital passport as set out in the consultation is expected to: improve data integrity and security; provide scope for real-time assurance checks; reduce costs across the supply chain; and increase confidence and credibility to growers, buyers' customers, stakeholders, and regulators.
  • The industry Leadership Group is chaired by AHDB Board member, Stephen Briggs. It meets weekly, and comprises:
    • Merchants and animal feed business – represented by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
    • Farmers – represented by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and NFU Scotland
    • Receivers – represented by UK Flour Millers, the Maltsters Association and Seed Crushers and Oilseed Processors.
  • For more information, visit the Digital Passport page. You can also:

Sent on behalf of the Digital Passport Leadership Group

Three weeks left to respond to the Combinable Crops Digital Passport Consultation

Cereals and oilseeds producers are being urged to have their say on the business case for implementing a digital passport for combinable crops, before a consultation on the proposals closes on Friday, 2 February 2024.

Since 20 November 2023, industry bodies have been holding webinars and open meetings and discussing the business case with individual businesses. These meetings have been hugely valuable in gaining feedback and understand the wider industry perspective.

The Digital Passport Leadership Group will continue communicating with trade association members and the wider industry to ensure all have an opportunity to take part in the consultation.

A spokesperson for the Leadership Group said:

“The consultation is a vital process in helping to refine and improve the business case, whilst answering a raft of industry questions.

“This consultation is to ensure that the business case proposed is robust and comprehensive. There have been several events across the country where passport users have taken opportunity to feed in their thoughts and ask questions. This has been beneficial in establishing views on the business case and highlighting gaps that need to be addressed.

“The consultation runs until 2 February, and we encourage all passport users to use that time to input into the process and give their thoughts on the business case.”

So far in the consultation questions have focused on: cost and connectivity; how the passport works when out of range to connect to the web; and system ownership. Detail on these aspects is set out in notes below.

Once the consultation is complete, the industry Leadership Group will review all feedback and decide on a way forward. If the group feels industry response is positive, they will look to fund the project through several means. One of which will be to approach the AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds Sector Council for levy funding.

All information on how to engage and who to contact at trade associations can be found on the Digital Passport webpage. This webpage, hosted on behalf of the industry working group, contains the full business case, as well as a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions which link directly to the relevant business case section.

For those who are not part of a trade association, AHDB is hosting a feedback form on the same webpages to allow all feedback to be collated for the leadership group.

Key consultation questions

Costs

Q. What is the cost of the system?

A. The annual running cost of the Digital Passport is currently estimated at £396k. Over a ten-year period, this cost of close to £4m will be outweighed by projected industry wide saving of £6m (see table below).

Digital Passport - Headline Costs and Savings

SavingsSet-up CostsAnnual Running Costs
    Technology build cost £500k Amortised build cost (10 years) £50k
Annual savings £672k Industry Implementation £872k Staff, legal, data storage etc £346k
Total savings (phased over 10 years) £6m Total Set up Cost £1.4m Total net cost (10 years) £3.9m

Connectivity

Q. How will the system operate on farms and delivery points with no connection?

A. In simple terms the data will be entered offline and then upload to the system as soon as connection is recovered. Drivers will leave the collection point with a passport saved to their device/smartphone which will automatically upload to the digital passport database when the device finds data signal. Where there is no connectivity at intake, passports will be transferred from drivers’ devices to intake devices offline. As a last resort, the telephone help desk service can process passports for exceptions.

System ownership, data, and decision-making governance 

Q. How will the system be managed and who owns the data in it?

A. Each business will own and retain control of the data they enter in the DP system. Data management will be overseen by a Data Governance Group made up of representatives of all users. In addition to industry representatives, data specialists will be invited to join the group.

This group will have complete oversight of all aspects relating to data including what data is required to be shared via the digital passport, system security standards, GDPR, data quality and transparency and ensuring that data is fed back to growers in real-time as defined in the business case.

A consortium will be set up comprising the key parties represented on the current Leadership Group, plus AHDB. This is the same model (with different parties) which has worked successfully for the AHDB Recommended Lists for many years. Under this model, AHDB would be the legal entity owning the digital passport system and database on behalf of the consortium and industry.

 

Notes for editors:

  • The business case sets out how the Digital Passport (Combinable Crops) system would operate, replacing the existing paper passport, which has been in use for more than 30 years. The electronic passport will, as now, be initiated by farmers with input from hauliers, before being transmitted to receivers.
  • Switching to a single, industry wide digital passport as set out in the consultation is expected to: improve data integrity and security; provide scope for real-time assurance checks; reduce costs across the supply chain; and increase confidence and credibility to growers, buyers' customers, stakeholders, and regulators.
  • The industry Leadership Group is chaired by AHDB Board member, Stephen Briggs. It meets weekly, and comprises:
    • Merchants and animal feed business – represented by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
    • Farmers – represented by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and NFU Scotland
    • Receivers – represented by UK Flour Millers, the Maltsters Association and Seed Crushers and Oilseed Processors.
  • For more information, visit Digital Passport. You can also:

Sent on behalf of the Digital Passport Leadership Group

Consultation on Combinable Crops Digital Passport begins Monday, 20 November 2023

An industry-wide consultation on the business case for implementing a digital passport for combinable crop movements will begin on Monday, 20 November 2023, closing on Friday, 2 February 2024.

The business case will set out how the Digital Passport (Combinable Crops) system would operate, replacing the existing paper passport, which has been in use for more than 30 years. The electronic passport will, as now, be initiated by farmers with input from hauliers, before being transmitted to receivers.

Switching to a single, industry-wide digital passport, as set out in the consultation, is expected to improve data integrity and security, provide scope for real-time assurance checks, reduce costs across the supply chain, and increase confidence and credibility to growers, buyers' customers, stakeholders and regulators.

Live updates of assurance status, prior to the vehicle leaving farms, are expected to reduce the risk of delay or rejection at the receiver’s site. The system will allow for data to flow simply and reliably between farmers, grain merchants and end users such as millers, maltsters and feed mills.

A spokesperson for the Leadership Group said that substantial time has been invested in developing a business case which addresses all the aspects of the new system, from governance to development and operation. 

They concluded:

“In essence this is a simple change, switching from the pieces of paper currently carried with each load across the country, to a digital equivalent in a robust, secure online system. Operationally it would be a marked change, and we are now keen to hear views from stakeholders across the supply chain on the proposal.”

The Leadership Group will be looking at the feedback received during the 11-week consultation to assess support for the business case and whether it meets industry requirements. 

The industry Leadership Group is chaired by AHDB Board member Stephen Briggs. It meets weekly, and comprises:

  • Merchants and animal feed business – represented by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
  • Farmers – represented by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and NFU Scotland
  • Receivers – represented by UK Flour Millers, the Maltsters Association and Seed Crushers and Oilseed Processors.

From farmers and hauliers to merchants and processors, the entire industry has been represented through a series of working groups tasked with developing the detail of how the Digital Passport will work, as well as designing a data governance framework.

During the consultation, industry representative bodies are inviting feedback on the business case through webinars and meetings. To engage with the consultation, please contact your representative trade association or contact AHDB via David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk.

Visit our Digital Passport page for more information.

– Ends –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

  • The Combinable Crops Digital Passport will, as now with paper documentation, be initiated by farmers with input from hauliers before onward transmission to receivers. There will be live updates of assurance status prior to the vehicle leaving farms, avoiding the risk of delay or rejection at the receiver’s site.
  • The system will enable a multi-directional flow of data between farmers, grain merchants and end users such as millers, maltsters, and feed mills. This includes a commitment to the real-time return of information to those involved in the contractual chain.
  • For the past year the Leadership Group has been working to address fundamental questions raised by the industry in 2022. Once the consultation closes, they will review all feedback and make a collective decision on how to proceed.
  • Representatives from all parts of the cereals and oilseeds supply chain have been working together to create the business case, with support from experts at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

Following on from the previous communication dated 14 July, there has been further progress made by the Leadership Group, Development Group and Data Group.

The Leadership Group continues to work closely together to review the completion of the Development and Data Groups’ work. The Leadership Group has also been discussing how the longer-term ownership and funding structure of a DGP would operate so that all options are reviewed prior to making a recommendation in the business case. During August, the Leadership Group will meet on a fortnightly basis before resuming more regular meetings during September to review the final business case prior to industry consultation in the autumn.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU (National Farmers Union), Chair)

The Data Group met for a sixth time on Monday 31 July to finalise the structure for oversight of data governance in the DGP.

The Group agreed the final principles of Data Governance to be written into the business case. The outline of these principles is as follows:

  • A Data Governance Group to set up from the point of DGP build commencing to oversee the process.
  • This Group would have the remit to cover security, legal frameworks, data transfer and quality, ensuring data is as real-time as allows etc.
  • The Group will be made up of representatives of all users of the passport.
  • Methods of aggregating and anonymising data will be employed for data being used for food and feed safety and security purposes.
  • GDPR considerations have been reviewed and retention periods agreed for personal data; users of a DGP will need to sign-up to a data sharing agreement to agree to these terms.
  • This sign-up process will ensure users are agreeing to the key principles of sharing data through the supply chain and that data can be used in aggregate for food and feed safety data requests.

The outcomes of the Data Governance work have far more detail which will now be built into the final business case.

Data security was also discussed in the Data Group meeting. AHDB’s security architect is inputting into the project to ensure data will be secure. The Group is also in contact with the National Cyber Security Centre who have shared valuable insights into ransomware safety, bulk data handling, digital signatures and digital certificates. The DGP system operators will also sign-up to NCSC’s early warning tool which collates live threats/intelligence feeds to provide specific targeted warnings as and when threats develop.

If your company has any specific security requirements from the system, please contact Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk to discuss in more detail.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The Development Group focus over the past 3 weeks has been on the application of a DGP in ports. With the support of GAFTA, the Group met with superintendents, port operators and exporters. Following this, representatives of the Development Group from AHDB visited Immingham, New Holland and Tilbury ports. These visits have helped to inform the Development Group’s work on ensuring the system will meet the operational requirements of all aspects of the supply chain.

The focus now turns to completing the business case and ensuring that all the key points from the Development Group are included and thoroughly detailed.

Following on from the previous communication dated 30 June, there has been further progress made by the Leadership Group, Development Group and Data Group.

The Leadership Group continues to work closely together to review the outcomes of the Development and Data Groups, as well as aligning and supporting wider industry communications and webinars. The Leadership Group has been meeting on a weekly basis and will now revert to fortnightly meetings during the harvest period.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU (National Farmers Union), Chair)

The Data Group met for a fifth time on Monday 10 July to discuss the following key points:

  • The Group signed off the proposal for how the system will manage the issues raised by multiple handling of grain through the supply chain.
  • The Group signed off the proposal for data ownership and visibility (who enters, sees, and owns each piece of data).
  • The main time of the agenda was taken by two points of discussion. The first on the provision and understanding of real-time data, and the second a continued discussion on the proposed structure for data governance and the make-up of a data governance group.
  • With regards to real-time data, the Group agreed that there will be multiple definitions of this to begin with as the supply chain integrates DGP. For example, large intakes such as flour mills, and modern port facilities will have integrated technology for as close to real-time as possible. Whereas other intakes, ports, and most notably farm-owned central stores, will have a different ability to pass data on due to their technological capabilities. There is also the constraint on real-time stemming from testing requirements. For instance, malting barley moisture and specific weight are available quicker than germination testing. The Group were content that there will be multiple definitions, but that it should be a core principle of the system to return data in ‘real-time’ depending on what is technically possible at intake and in assurance checks.
  • The Group spent time reviewing a presentation on the data governance framework and fed back on multiple areas for continual development.
  • The Group focussed on further developing the structure of the data governance group to ensure all stakeholders are included as well as data experts who can advise the data owners in decision making processes.
  • New aspects of the data governance structure relate to expanding the ‘triage’ questions needed to ensure that food and feed safety data requests meet the required level of confidence from the governance group.
  • The data governance structure now includes detailed validation thresholds that would be required to be passed. These include the number of companies in each dataset and a maximum proportion of the sample that a company can account for.

The Data Group will meet again on 31 July to continue these discussions.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The Development Group work now focuses on the connectivity and usage solutions that are required for central stores and ports.

In recent days we have visited on-farm and commercial storage operations to understand more of how data is collated and transferred at these points of intake. Initial learnings are pointing to 3 specific ways of data collation; via integrated systems, excel spreadsheets and in a tiny minority of cases in ledger books.

To understand more on storekeepers' requirements, we have a live survey of grain intake points to develop a comprehensive view of current technological capabilities. The survey can be found here Digital Grain Passport - Software and Connectivity Survey (office.com) and will remain live until 21 July.

Once the survey is complete, this work will be finalised into a clearly understandable process that can be shared as part of the business case.

The questions around connectivity are hugely important and the project has made significant strides in finding workable solutions to lack of signal at collection and delivery points.

As work has progressed on storekeepers' requirements, focus has moved to port needs. A meeting with the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) and respective port and superintendent members has been organised for 18 July. This meeting will purely focus on ensuring there is a clear knowledge of the DGP proposal so far in GAFTA membership and allow for any questions and development requirements to be raised.

The work of the Development Group is nearing its conclusion, after which the content will be collated and presented to the DGP Leadership Group before being finalised in the business case.

Following on from previous communications dated 2 June and 13/14 June, there has been further progress made by the Development Group and Data Group.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU (National Farmers Union), Chair)

The Data Group held their latest meeting on 20 June, the group discussed the following key points.

Multiple handling of grain has been discussed and addressed as part of the Data Group's work and a solution has been agreed to allow a proposed system to operate effectively.

The group also reviewed an updated table on which parties enter, see and own the data. Whilst the group agreed in principle upon the ownership and visibility, there remains questions from some parts of the supply chain which need to be addressed before the document can be fully signed-off by the Group.

Data governance proposals were also covered in the meeting. The permissions for data use are split into four areas:

  • The supply of data up and down the supply chain
  • Aggregated and anonymised data for food and feed safety/security purposes
  • Industry data analysis e.g., usage data
  • Third-party data requests

The Group agreed that the permission for third party and industry usage will be off the table until a point where the transition process is underway or complete.

The Group had questions over the definition of data vs information, it was also requested that data processing should be cost neutral to the DGP to ensure the total cost of the system does not increase as data usage grows.

The key actions for the Data Group to work on centre on the data ownership/visibility and the governance. The next meeting is scheduled for 10 July.

Following the data group meeting on 20 June, individual discussions have been held within the oilseed and milling wheat supply chain to better define individual business requirements of a system to ensure it is applicable across all users. These discussions have focussed on the mechanism by which data can be shared from end-user to contractual counterparties and ensuring that data is delivered back to farm. Discussions are still ongoing on this area with the action for further proposals to be defined so that agreement can be reached on the most expeditious way to transfer data whilst also not infringing upon contractual data sharing obligations.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The Development Group met again on 27 June. This meeting discussed proposals for the transition period from paper to digital, the updates on recent conversations with assurance bodies and technology providers as well as covering the outstanding key questions needed to complete the business case.

Meetings with a range of technology providers have taken place to determine if there is a suitable ‘off the shelf’ solution for DGP already used in other industries and sectors i.e., aggregates or fresh produce. After exploring various options, it is now evident that a bespoke system will need to be developed and implemented.

The discussions with technology partners have yielded key understanding of how digital transfer of data is possible between devices both online and offline and this was presented to the Development Group. The three possible ways of connecting devices are via Bluetooth, QR codes and Near Field Communication (NFC) all of which are commonplace in modern data transfer systems.

Meetings with assurance bodies over recent weeks have been productive to ensure all requirements are met and open dialogue will continue. The Development Group chair and facilitator will remain in contact with assurance bodies as the business case is developed.

The Development Group members also discussed data visibility in the event of a food or feed safety rejection and agreed that where one of these occurs, the rejected status and the reason for the rejection will be visible via the DGP to any subsequent receiver.

The Group concluded by discussing delivery and despatch processes at TASCC stores and ports, and agreed that more work needs to be done to understand this area. A meeting is being arranged with GAFTA for port operators and superintendents.

If you are aware of any digital system that provides a two-way flow of delivery information that may be pertinent to learn from and support the DGP business case development, please contact Derek Carless (Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk) and David Eudall (David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk).

Following on from the previous communication dated 2 June, please see as follows a key update on the progress of the DGP (Digital Grain Passport) project.

The Leadership Group, Data Group and Development Group continue to meet regularly and work closely together to progress the updating of a new business case for a DGP.

Headlines are as follows:

  • The Leadership Group continue to drive the project forwards to ensure the business case is developed as quickly as possible. The business case will be ready in September for sign-off by the Leadership Group. This will then kick off a period of industry consultation in the autumn, the result of which feeds into a final decision to progress with levy funding by the AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) Cereals and Oilseeds Sector Council in early December.
  • In the time up until harvest, the Data Group and Development Group will finalise their efforts in answering the remaining questions that need to be addressed in the business case. During harvest, the business case will then be written. The development of the business case is still open and the Groups welcome input from industry to help ensure that all voices are heard, and concerns/questions are raised to build a robust and detailed business case.
  • The Development Group Chair, with AHDB support staff, has been meeting with existing technology providers to ascertain how current systems work, what we can learn and how we could adapt existing systems to our needs. The Development Group will next meet formally on 20 June to discuss the outcome of these discussions as well as proposals for transitioning from paper to digital.
  • The Data Group is focussing on data governance, looking at who owns the data, who can see what data when, and how that data is then used. This is leading to the creation of proposals for a data governance board that are due to be discussed at the next Data Group meeting on 20 June.
  • Communications on the project will continue regularly up to and throughout harvest, to allow for an equitable distribution of information throughout the industry. If you would like any further information on the project or have specific questions or concerns, please contact Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk or David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk who are supporting and facilitating the business case development.

Following on from the previous communication dated May 19th, there has been further progress made by the Development Group and Data Group.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU, Chair)

The Data Group met on Tuesday 30th May to continue their discussions on data usage, licensing and the principles of how data should be governed in a DGP.

The key topics discussed were:

  • Signed off the Agrimetrics proposals for data governance framework at a headline level to be the agreed structure used for the DGP.
  • The Group discussed and agreed the data ownership structure to be defined in the business case. This relates to the specifics on a passport of who enters, sees and owns each piece of data.
  • Data permission scenarios were discussed in detail. These scenarios focussed on two specific permissions, the first being the passing of data back and forth through a DGP system to make the basic functionality happen e.g., for a passport to move along the chain to delivery point and for feedback of data to happen. The second point of permissions was related to the use of aggregated and anonymised data for use in food and feed security requirements. This matter is now being sent to the Leadership Group for discussion to ensure a cross-industry consensus is reached.
  • The group were presented a set of slides relating to the context of their decisions around data governance and how a data governance group could be built. The Group inputted into further work required to create a formal governance group and agreed that the contextual decisions on data governance cannot be fully answered until the Leadership Group has given its view on the data permissions.
  • The next meeting date was set for Tuesday June 20th.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The Development Group continues to make progress and representatives of the group are focussing on taking learnings from existing digital tools to further develop the DGP proposal. Actions since the last update are as follows:

  • The group have put together a decision tree to capture all exceptions to the main simplified DGP process in terms of connection and smartphone availability. It includes whether there is connection at collection point or not, and whether the driver and/or the grower/storekeeper have a smartphone available or not.
  • Met with Red Tractor and saw a demonstration of their online pdf passport functionality (available to growers in England & Wales) and their online delivery point rejection reporting process.
  • Have had demonstrations from Kisan Hub, Podfather, Hectare Agritech to better understand existing digital systems.
  • We are in the process of arranging meetings with SQC and TASCC to discuss the specifics of how the DGP would interact with those assurance schemes.
  • We are meeting with Audacia, the company who built the DGP prototype demonstrated to industry in 2022, to discuss the new simplified DGP process, and the key outstanding questions requiring technological solutions.


If you are aware of any digital system that provides a two-way flow of delivery information that may be pertinent to learn from and support the DGP business case development, please contact Derek Carless (Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk) and David Eudall (David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk).

Following on from the previous communication dated May 11th, there has been further progress made by the Development Group and Data Group.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU, Chair)

The Data Group met on Tuesday 16th May to continue their discussions on data usage, licensing and the principles of how data should be governed in a DGP. The key topics discussed were:

  • Reviewing the AgriMetrics proposals on data governance from January 2022 in more depth; there were no new questions or challenges to the headline proposals and a key action for the group to now develop is defining the practicalities and implementation of these proposals.
  • The group held a discussion on data license permissions (for what purpose the data can be used, and by who). The group in principle agreed that data shared via a DGP portal for the purpose of food and feed safety as well as aggregated an anonymised data used for food and feed safety is appropriate.
  • The group had further discussions on whether aggregated and anonymised datasets can be used in analysis for the benefit of the industry as whole and by third parties in bespoke data requests. The group agreed that analysis for industry needs exploring as it depends on each supply chain's view of data usage and that the usage by third parties at this stage is one which the group is wary of agreeing to.
  • Who owns the data and who can see the data during a passports journey from farm to end-destination, as well as after product is tipped was also presented to the group and no questions were raised on this matter.
  • The group were updated on contact being made with the National Cyber Security Centre to assess any requirements needed to be made in the system to ensure data integrity and safety from external party interference.

The Data Group is to meet again on Tuesday May 30th; the key actions to develop for this meeting are to create examples of how data could be used so the data licensing permissions can be agreed and to develop example structures of how a data governance group could work to ensure an equitable balance of influence upon data decisions.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The main update from the Development Group is that a meeting with Red Tractor (RT) occurred to learn more about RT’s online pdf passport creator. There are further meetings organised in the coming weeks with other technology providers to learn from current digital systems being implemented.

If you are aware of any digital system that provides a two-way flow of delivery information that may be pertinent to learn from and support the DPG business case development, please contact Derek Carless (Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk) and David Eudall (David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk)

Key actions are to set up meetings with Scottish Quality Crops and AIC (TASCC) to determine their involvement in a digital passport system and specifically to understand the differences in procedures in Scotland.

We do not have a follow-up meeting yet booked in with the Development Group, we will set this date as required once the discussions with industry and technology providers are complete.

Following on from the previous communication dated April 21st, the Leadership Group, Development Group and Data Group have continued to meet to expedite the delivery of a business case to industry.

Leadership Group

The Leadership Group has continued to progress industry communication and engagement on the building of a DGP business case. The expectation of the Group is that the initial scoping and designing exercise by the Development Group and Data Group will be complete pre-harvest. During the summer, the business case will be crafted and built, taking into account all salient points from industry.

The business case will then be presented back to the industry through September/October (weather/harvest dependent) to allow for a full consultation process. Once this consultation has been concluded, the Leadership Group will review the feedback and agree if there is consensus to progress or not for a final go/no-go decision to be made, this will then be presented to the AHDB Sector Council along with any required revisions to the business case.

The Leadership Group will continue to liaise closely with the industry and stakeholders to ensure all parties who use or have input into a grain passport are aware and being communicated with. The Leadership Group will provide regular fortnightly updates up until harvest to keep stakeholders aware of progress.

Data Group (Matt Culley, NFU, Chair)

The first meeting of the Data Group took place on Tuesday 2nd May. This introductory meeting confirmed the terms of reference for the group, introduced the aims and objectives.

The follow-up meeting is planned for Tuesday 16th May. The objectives of this meeting are:

  • to go into greater depth discussing the AgriMetrics data governance recommendations of January 2022
  • discuss who owns what data throughout the proposed DGP system
  • agree on data permissions where data can be shared, and
  • to agree who in the chain can see the passport and at what point in the process this happens.

Dependant on the requirement, there will be subsequent Data Group meetings to continue the discussions on data governance and usage.

Development Group (George Mason, Heygates, Chair)

The Development Group held its 3rd formal meeting on Tuesday May 9th. The purpose of this meeting was to review the proposed streamlined version of a digital passport as well as discuss what exceptions are needed to be considered outside of the most common farm to end-receiver via merchant contracted haulage process (e.g. for self-haulage, non-assured grain, for movement into/from central stores etc).

The key actions following this meeting are to explore in detail with our current development partner, Audacia, on how the system can be implemented and delivered. We are at the stage in the Development Group process where we are ready to start exploring technological solutions for the needs the Group have raised.

We do not have a follow-up meeting yet booked in with the Development Group, we will set this date as required once the discussions with the development partner are complete.

An industry-wide leadership group has been established to develop a business case for a digital grain passport (DGP) to replace the existing paper-based passport system. This will address the benefits, the costs, the consequences of doing nothing, governance and data management issues. The group includes representatives from growers, grain and oilseed merchants and primary processors along with AHDB.

The aim is to make rapid progress so that a decision can be made on whether an industry-wide scheme is viable and worthwhile early in the autumn of 2023. It is hoped that substantial progress can be made ahead of the upcoming harvest.

The leadership group has established sub-groups to address (a) the content, mechanism and governance of the system and (b) data management and security. The latter has not yet met; the development group met on 19th April. The development group also includes operatives from businesses throughout the chain and in all parts of Great Britain.

Proposed approach

The leadership group met on 21st April and endorsed the development group’s plan to work on the following basis:

The DGP will be designed as a replacement for the existing paper passport. There will be no universal requirement for all businesses to integrate with the DGP, (some end-receivers may wish to if cost appropriate) and it will be a simpler version than some of the possibilities previously discussed. It will not replace any other contractual documentation or system.

  • Therefore, it will, as now, originate on the farm. As now, the farmer will be able to pre-populate the digital passport before a vehicle arrives.
    The vehicle will arrive, and the driver will have, as now, the three-part documentation relating to the movement arrangements, a copy of which will be left on farm.
    As now, the vehicle will be inspected on arrival at the collection point; it will be checked by the farmer and driver and the relevant information entered into the digital passport.
  • This will permit a live assurance check for both the farm and the vehicle, meaning that vehicles should not need to be loaded unless both are valid. Live assurance checking avoids problems further down the chain and fulfils end-user requirements (e.g., in relation to the Renewable Energy Directive).
  • As now, the loaded vehicle will then depart, the DGP having been completed.
  • On arrival at its destination, the DGP information will be downloadable by the receiver through a QR code or similar. Other paperwork will not be affected.

Receivers/processors have committed to real time (or as close to real time as possible) return of quality data to growers.

The precise mechanism for achieving this is being worked upon. It is most likely that weighbridge data will be included in a DGP hub so that hauliers and the relevant farm can access it; and that quality information will also be loaded onto this hub with access available to the farmer/store from which the grain originated and the performing merchant. Information will be protected so that it is available only to those involved in the contractual transaction – the performing merchant(s), grower and end user.

Contractual information, and anything to do with financial considerations, will be exchanged in whatever method is currently used by the parties. The DGP will not be a mechanism for transmitting claims etc.

Next steps

More work will go into the system specification, which will be informed by the data management sub-group’s discussions, beginning on 2nd May.

The data group will also be looking at important issues relating to security of information and the precise way in which it will be transferred etc.

This will subsequently permit work on (a) system costs and (b) an estimate of business costs to get underway. The latter are not expected to be large as there will be no necessity for all in the supply chain to integrate (though some may choose to if the efficiency savings are clear and cost effective). There may be some offsetting savings as information from the passport will not need to be transcribed and paperwork will be slightly reduced.

It is hoped that this work will proceed at some pace, and that if so, a further update can be provided towards the end of May. It needs to be remembered, however, that the purpose of this work is to outline a system which could work, considering views from all parts of the chain, and assessing its cost and benefits. This will subsequently allow organisations to decide whether a DGP system is worthwhile.

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