Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consequences of not storing information centrally on Non-Disclosure Agreements agreed across Government; and what plans they have, if any, to make such information centrally available.

Full information on the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements is held by individual departments. However, in line with the requirements set out in the Cabinet Office guidance on the use of confidentiality clauses in the Civil Service, departments are required to seek Cabinet Office Ministerial approval before using certain confidentiality clauses in a settlement agreement and to report certain information centrally on an annual basis. This is to ensure that such clauses are not used to prevent staff from raising or discussing allegations of bullying, harassment or discrimination, which the Government has made clear is unacceptable.

There are no plans to publish the data collected centrally as much of this information is sensitive and publishing it would not satisfy UK GDPR requirements.