Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of safeguards to ensure that confidentiality agreements cannot prevent employees and their representatives from participating in statutory consultations, particularly in safety-critical sectors.

While non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) can lawfully be used to require one or more parties to keep certain information confidential (for example, trade secrets), there are a range of legal limitations on their use. For example, NDAs cannot prevent someone from making a whistleblowing disclosure (known formally as a “protected disclosure”) or a disclosure required by law or override other legal obligations.

Employers remain subject to any statutory consultation requirements that apply to them.