Non-disclosure Agreements in the Workplace

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 5th September 2023 Westminster Hall

[Dame Maria Miller (Basingstoke) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the use of non-disclosure agreements in the workplace.

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Ms Ali, for this important debate on the use of non-disclosure agreements in the workplace. I will start by talking about the importance of every one of us—each and every citizen of our country—to the productiveness of our society.

Working to support ourselves creates wealth. For those who are older or younger, it is an essential part of a vibrant and successful economy. We in Parliament agonise over producing laws to remove the barriers that can stand in the way of people going to work. We stop people being made redundant simply because they are pregnant, being fired for being too old, or being denied a job because they have a disability, and we stop employees suffering sexual abuse because of an abuse of power at work.

Yet we know from the evidence collected by organisations such as Pregnant Then Screwed, Maternity Action, WhistleblowersUK, Can’t Buy My Silence and many more that employers routinely use non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements to stop workplace wrongs being talked about, punished and put right. They use NDAs to silence employees who are fired or made redundant unlawfully. They stop them from seeking medical support for the psychological trauma that they have experienced, from taking action through employment tribunals, and in some cases from taking cases of criminal wrongdoing to the police. They remove people from their jobs with an exit agreement that includes a silencing clause, creating fear that talking about even illegal acts might mean they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, with the additional fear of having to pay back any payment they might have received when they departed from their job.

We know that there is a need for confidentiality at work. Routinely when we sign our contracts of employment there is a standard condition of confidentiality in the initial employment agreement. Some people therefore dismiss concerns about non-disclosure agreements because they know that NDAs can be unenforceable if they are put in place at the end of an employment contract. But most people are not legal experts. They cannot take the risk of being on the wrong side of the law and having to pay back any settlement agreement money, and employers know that.

The lawyers are part of the problem. The Solicitors Regulatory Authority has reminded all solicitors of their duty to uphold professional standards when dealing with NDAs. It issued a warning notice in 2018 that was updated in 2020. The SRA has been proactive and is to be applauded, but in reality the questionable usage of NDAs continues, first, because the SRA found that more than a third of law firms were not even aware of the 2018 notice—something that I am sure they are putting right—and secondly, because so many NDAs are drawn up by people who are not regulated by the legal profession, or maybe not regulated at all, and this is set to grow.

When I asked my office manager to ask ChatGPT to write me a standard UK severance contract after discrimination at work, a clause was automatically inserted that reads:

“Confidentiality: Both parties agree to maintain the confidentiality of this Agreement and not to disclose any details related to the discrimination claim or this Agreement to third parties, except as required by law”,

but no further details. How many people are now using these formula contracts as a matter of course? This might be the future of accessing legal expertise for many people, so we cannot rely on professional legal ethics and regulation to ensure that employers act in the right way. We need the law to be clear, too.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

I thank the right hon. Lady for giving way and commend her on securing this topical and timely debate. Does she agree with me about the costs? No matter where it occurs in what sector, when we get into the public sector, public moneys are expended by some large employers. The likes of the BBC employs NDAs against employees and then subsequent former employees to try to buy silence over an agreed contract.

[Dame Maria Miller]

The hon. Member makes an important point about the use of NDAs by large public bodies. He mentioned the BBC, and I could go on to mention other media organisations. Indeed, NDAs have been used routinely in this place in the past. Mr Speaker and others, however, have ensured that that practice has stopped—it is possible to stop such things, if there is a will from the top.

The Government already know the importance of that point. The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Michelle Donelan), with the backing of the Department for Education, put in place a voluntary university pledge to stop the use of NDAs in university settings. It became law under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, through an amendment made on 7 February, so Parliament has had its say and the Government have accepted that say, but only in connection with universities.

The pledge, when it was introduced, protected students, staff and others from the use of NDAs in cases involving sexual harassment, discrimination and other forms of misconduct and bullying. If such a ban is good enough for universities, I hope that the Minister will agree that we can see no reason why employees in other sectors should not be protected in the same way.

The Government must look at how they could provide the same safeguards as the universities now have across every workplace in Britain against agreements drawn up by lawyers and those not drawn up by lawyers, which I believe to be the vast majority. As part of the pathway that the Government will follow in the coming months to achieve that sort of change, I hope that they will also support my amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which would recognise people who have signed NDAs as victims too, for consistency.

NDAs are of particular concern to Parliament and parliamentarians, because they are disproportionately used to silence women and minority groups, flying in the face of anti-discrimination laws, which have been in place for decades. Women report signing NDAs at six times the rate for men, black women at three times the rate for white women, and, interestingly, at 40% of the rate for people with disabilities. People with disabilities suffer such NDAs far more than anyone else.

A third of the respondents to the Can’t Buy My Silence data collection in the UK are believed to have signed an NDA. Perhaps worse, another third did not go ahead with seeking the justice they were owed, because they anticipated having to sign an NDA and did not want to—for fear of the consequences perhaps. In their 2020 sexual harassment survey, the Government themselves, through the Government Equalities Office, reported that 48% of those who reported workplace sexual harassment were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement about their experience, whether staying at the organisation or exiting it. The Government are aware of the scale of the problem and they have legislated already, as a result of actions taken here in Parliament. We cannot let the status quo stand.

Given the nature of NDAs—their silencing properties and the secrecy that surrounds them—only as a result of the bravery of some who have endured NDAs do we know the damage that they are causing. I pay tribute to all those people—such as those in the Public Gallery and those Members—who have spoken out bravely publicly or privately on this matter. That includes the public reporting of the Independent Television News newsroom incidents, including multiple reports of NDAs by “Channel 4 News” and “Channel 5 News”.

A particular concern—the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) has already made the point about media outlets—is that organisations that provide news for millions of viewers are using NDAs to cover up allegations of sexual harassment, disability discrimination, maternity discrimination and much more. Even after public reporting, those are yet to be resolved. The concern is that we rely on such news organisations to expose the truth, and yet all summer we have seen more and more media reports about the toxic environments that have flourished.

I too have been approached by a number of whistleblowers at a number of ITN newsrooms. Why? Because of the lack of transparency and the fear of speaking up created by the use of apparently legal confidentiality clauses or NDAs. I believe that NDAs have no place in British workplaces if they stop people from freely exercising their rights under the law.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 7th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

As we heard earlier from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Neil O’Brien), the major conditions strategy report will deal with those issues. However, it is also important to consider the variation in performance between integrated care boards and how we can raise the bottom quartile to the level of the top quartile—there is far too much variation within the NHS—and to be data-driven, so that when it comes to genomics and screening we can target the outliers more precisely. That is what is behind the issue to which my hon. Friend has rightly drawn attention.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

T2. Will the 10-year cancer plan feature the distinctive approach that is required in relation to the early diagnosis of brain tumours?

[Helen Whately]

Cancer will be a substantial part of the major conditions strategy. We will be looking at the major causes of ill health in the country, of which cancer is, of course, one. Part of that will involve ensuring that we are good at diagnosing cancer, because the earlier it is diagnosed, the more treatable it is, and hence the better the outcomes for people with cancer will be.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Westminster Hall

[Patricia Gibson]

Indeed. We have talked about the overlap and common ground between eating disorders and obsessive behaviour. That territory certainly includes issues such as athletes who are very conscious of body image and how to maintain it.

We have heard that eating disorders are often incorrectly, and perhaps almost exclusively, associated with young women. Stereotypes around the disorder mean that often men who are living with this condition can be deterred from seeking the help that they need. They can also have their difficulties and struggles misdiagnosed. That is why this year’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week theme is eating disorders in men. In fact, one in four people with eating disorders are men, and it is important that we raise awareness around that so that people understand this is not restricted to women.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

Even though men are in the minority of those affected, an important issue, and one that I too struggle with in my gender, is that many males, and young males, fail to get help, and fail to admit and acknowledge their problems. That is not the case in every other walk of life—if the car is not working, we take it to the garage; if the television is not working, we get the TV repair man—but we sometimes struggle to get males to understand that if help is needed, they should seek help and get it.

[Patricia Gibson]

Other health statistics show that men are notoriously poor at asking for the help they need, which is why they often have undiagnosed conditions. The creation of a gender stereotype around eating disorders makes it all the more difficult to break the barriers if young men develop this condition or are in danger of developing it. We need to be aware of that.

I am glad that the Scottish Government have made available support to the eating disorder charity Beat, to help to provide additional support and services across Scotland for those who are affected by this cruel illness. All medical courses in Scottish universities are discussing with Beat how to deliver, or are already providing, further training on this complex condition, of which we need to continue to develop our understanding.

Those living with the condition and their families have seen this illness tighten its grip on individuals and families who were already struggling with it during the covid pandemic. Many of those affected were left to the mercy of the awful online forums, which advise those living with the condition on how best to avoid food without family members noticing. In preparation for this debate I checked, and those online forums still exist. They are still operating and advising people how to fool their families into believing that they are eating when they are not—that is simply appalling. It is absolutely disgraceful that such sites can be hosted with apparent impunity, effectively promoting self-harm, which can and often does lead to death. When the Minister responds, I really hope she will address that.

This is a very serious condition. We work to try to remove any websites that host hate speech or incite hatred of any kind; these forums are equally dangerous, in my view, and they ought not to continue. They have been in operation, to my knowledge, for at least 20 years. There seems to have been no progress in tackling them. The takeaway for me today is that the Minister should at least tackle that element of the problem, while we all work together to try to improve treatment and diagnosis for those affected.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is always a pleasure to speak in Westminster Hall, and I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for securing this essential debate. She has made it her passion in the House—in Westminster Hall and the main Chamber—to highlight these issues, and I commend her for that. Her enthusiasm and energy for the subject are worth noting. This is an emotive issue and, like other hon. Members, I have recently been fighting a case for a constituent who needed in-patient care and could not be seen in Northern Ireland.

According to a report published by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in its review of eating disorder services in Northern Ireland, approximately 50 to 120 people develop anorexia nervosa and 170 people develop bulimia nervosa every year in Northern Ireland. That is a significant number. Thanks to the office of former Health Minister Edwin Poots, and thanks to his energy and commitment, a young woman who was a constituent of mine at the time went to St Thomas’s across the way. He saved her life—I have no doubt about that at all. Her mum and dad were extremely concerned about her, and I was concerned because I know the family very well. Today she is a married woman with two children and she has a life like everybody else because action was taken. That is a true story and shows what can be done. In another case—I know the mother and the young girl herself well, but I will not mention any names—my constituent needs advanced help.

We want to address the issue of stigma, discrimination and shame. It is clear that eating disorders are becoming more prevalent, and there are a number of reasons why people believe that is the case. I have heard of those who blame filters on social media, which make vulnerable people believe that a flat stomach, perfect abs and enhanced proportions are real. As the hon. Member for Bath said, that mostly affects men, but some girls want that as well. Others have highlighted that eating disorder forums accessible on the internet and on social media give tips on how to eat as little as possible.

I had a parent tell me before Christmas that a school classmate pledge was the reason why her daughter dropped to 6 stone at a height of 5 feet 9 inches. The classmates decided that none of them would eat Christmas dinner and that they would weigh themselves several times a day. That is peer pressure. Again, that illustrates what the hon. Lady has said in this important debate. This parent said her daughter went to the GP and was found—at 14 years of age—to have damaged her heart and to be in danger of starvation, yet she felt the schoolyard pressure to fit in with other dieting 14-year-olds. We need to get things in place because boys and girls could destroy their health, or even kill themselves, if they do not have access to mental health services. The mental health aspect is really important.

[Mr Gregory Campbell]

My hon. Friend is outlining some harrowing cases from his constituency. Does he agree that some progress has been made in the wider context of the debate but that, as in other walks of life, we need to ensure that more progress is made to get to a better place?

[Jim Shannon]

I thank my hon. Friend and colleague for that intervention. Yes, I fully agree. As always, and I say this not because he is my friend and colleague, he brings wise words to Westminster Hall. I thank him for that.

On mental health, it is also known that early recognition and early treatment are associated with improved outcomes, so it is vital that all healthcare professionals are able to identify those at risk. There is an onus on them to do that, and patients should be able to access care quickly.

However, this is not simply a disease of young girls or indeed of young people in general. As others have said, one person in four with an eating disorder is a man, and the eating disorder charity Beat launched the United Kingdom’s biggest survey to date of men’s experience of eating disorders. Of those who took part, one in five had never spoken about their struggles—that happens—and four in five felt that raising awareness would help more men get treatment sooner. I ask the Minister, what has been done to promote awareness and to signpost available help—not simply for worried parents, but for worried brothers and sisters and for family members and friends who can see that things are not going well for their loved one?

I read an article on the National Eating Disorders Association website with the heading “Nine Truths about Eating Disorders”. I am not sure whether I have time to mention them all, but I will do my best—I will talk really fast, and nobody will be able to understand. [Laughter.] No, I am not going to do that.

The article states:

“Many people with eating disorders look healthy, yet may be extremely ill… Families are not to blame, and can be the patients’ and providers’ best allies in treatment.”

The third point, which I want to emphasise, is that an

“eating disorder diagnosis is a health crisis”—

that is what it is, and we should be under no illusion that it is anything else—

“that disrupts personal and family functioning.”

The article continues:

“Eating disorders are not choices, but serious biologically influenced illnesses… Eating disorders affect people of all genders, ages, races, ethnicities, body shapes and weights, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic statuses… Eating disorders carry an increased risk for both suicide and medical complications”

Others have mentioned that. The article goes on:

“Genes and environment play important roles in the development of eating disorders… Genes alone do not predict who will develop eating disorders.”

The ninth and last truth is:

“Full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. Early detection and intervention are important.”

I want to finish on this point. I am thankful for Eating Disorders Awareness Week, but I say with the greatest respect to the Minister—it goes without say that I greatly admire her, and we are dear friends—that we need an action plan. Will she put her shoulder to the wheel and implement what is necessary to effect change in the way we fund this area and approach this killer, because it is just that? Will she do so as a matter of urgency?