Last month, I used Parliamentary privilege to shine a light on a case of appalling injustice. A man silenced by the very system that was meant to protect him — gagged by a legal agreement he was never truly free to refuse.
Since then, my inbox has been flooded with equally harrowing accounts. Victims of harassment, discrimination — even assault — who’ve been muzzled by NDAs. These aren’t one-offs. We’re living through an NDA epidemic in this country.
For those unfamiliar, a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a legally binding contract designed to prevent individuals or organisations from disclosing sensitive information. While originally intended to protect trade secrets and intellectual property, NDAs are now widely used in civil settlements.
While this might come as a surprise to many reading this, it has been common knowledge for successive Governments. They have known all too well about the devastating misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements to silence victims of harassment, discrimination and abuse. And for years, they have done next to nothing.
Multiple consultations. Countless inquiries. Cross-party consensus. Survivor testimonies too painful to ignore. All the evidence is there. But still—no action.
The Tories had over a decade to fix this. In 2019, a consultation by the then Business Department concluded that NDAs were being widely misused to cover up harassment and discrimination. The Treasury Select Committee’s 2023 inquiry into Sexism in the City recommended urgent reforms. The Women and Equalities Committee has called for action again and again—most recently in their inquiry into misogyny in the music industry.
Despite all this, the Government has failed to legislate. And every delay has come at a cost.
In the time between these unacted-upon inquiries, I’ve heard from women who’ve been raped by colleagues and then gagged by NDAs— feeling unable even to speak to a medical professional about her trauma.
I’ve spoken to workers who were driven out of their jobs by disability discrimination, then legally silenced from warning others. I’ve heard from a woman blacklisted in her industry, unable to defend herself because her former employer made her sign an NDA on the way out.
Let’s be clear: NDAs were never meant for this. They were created to protect intellectual property and commercial confidentiality—not to enable institutional abuse or protect reputations at the expense of victims.
But today, they are used in the vast majority of settlement agreements—even in cases involving sexual assault, racial discrimination, disability and pregnancy discrimination, bullying and more. According to some estimates, NDAs are now used in over 90% of civil settlements. This isn’t accidental. It’s systemic.
And while recent legislation has made small inroads—banning NDAs in higher education, and making clear that victims can speak to legal or therapeutic services in cases of criminal conduct—this patchwork approach has created a two-tier system of protection.
If you’re harassed as a student on campus, you’re protected. If you’re a cleaner working in the same building, you’re not.
What is the possible justification for that?
The case for reform couldn’t be clearer. And the case for a full ban on NDAs in cases of harassment, discrimination and abuse is now overwhelming. Because nothing else will work.
While yes, they can be used as tools of malicious intent, they are also often signed unwittingly by workers and in many cases required unwittingly by employers, with little or no understanding of the consequences.
It has become standard practice to include broadly drafted confidentiality clauses in contracts that go far further than is required to protect commercial confidentiality or trade secrets. Such clauses prevent people speaking out if they have been assaulted or discriminated against at work. Even unenforceable NDAs still have a chilling effect—silencing victims through fear, shame, and uncertainty.
That’s why I tabled an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill to ban NDAs in cases of harassment, discrimination and abuse. It won cross-party support from 66 MPs — and I welcome the Minister’s willingness to engage.
We do not need another consultation. We do not need another review. We need legislation. The evidence is already there.
How many more people have to suffer in silence before this Government finally acts?
Other countries have done it—Ireland, several Canadian provinces, and 27 US states have already banned the misuse of NDAs. The UK is rapidly becoming an outlier. We have a Labour Government that says it wants to deliver justice for workers. This is a clear and defining moment to prove it.
NDAs should never be used to conceal cases of harassment, discrimination and abuse
