Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government's policy is on the use of non-disclosure agreements in the civil service for settling cases involving racial discrimination or abuse grievances.
The Cabinet Office publishes guidance on the use of confidentiality clauses in the Civil Service. This is publicly available here. It makes clear that such clauses should not be used to prevent staff from raising or discussing allegations of bullying, harassment or discrimination.
As part of the Government's evidence for the Women and Equalities Committee report on the use of non-disclosure agreements in discrminination cases, we provided details on the number of non-disclosure agreements used in the Civil Service including those that were used in cases of alleged discrimination. This represents the latest data we have available.