FOI 447/25 Non-Disclosure Agreements
Enquiry Reference: 447- 25
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
For the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025:
How many Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), also referred to as confidentiality clauses were signed with staff (current or former) by your organisation?
Of those NDAs, how many were part of settlement agreements related to:
- a) Complaints of bullying or harassment
- b) Complaints of discrimination (on any protected characteristic)
- c) Whistleblowing
- d) Other reasons (please specify if possible)
What was the total amount of money paid out in settlement agreements that contained NDAs?
What is the highest individual settlement amount paid in this period as part of a settlement agreement that contained an NDA?
Please include any available breakdowns by department, staff role, or type of claim where possible.
Answer
Having made enquiries within the Force below is our response.
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Cleveland Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any further information pertinent to this request as the duty in Section 1(1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 40 (5) Personal Information
Section 44 (2) Information Covered by Prohibitions on Disclosure
Sections 40 and 44 are class based absolute exemptions, which means that the legislators have identified that harm would be caused by any release. In addition, there is no requirement to consider the public interest test.
Section 40
Under subsection 2 of Section 40 of The Freedom of Information Act, information is exempt information if it constitutes personal information of which the applicant is not the data subject. In order to be considered exempt personal information, the information must satisfy one of two conditions. It must either be information which would be exempt from disclosure to the data subject under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, or disclosure of the information would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles or cause damage or distress to the data subject.
On this occasion the information requested is clearly personal information and would contravene the first principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - lawfulness, fairness and transparency, what are the likely expectations of the data subjects, in that would they expect the Cleveland Police to release confidential settlement agreement details to the world, since release of information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000, is release to the world at large and not just to the individual applicant and as such I believe to do so would amount to unfair processing and hence therefore is exempt under Section 40(2)(a).
Under subsection 2 of Section 44 of The Freedom of Information Act, the duty to confirm or deny does not arise if the confirmation or denial that would have to be given to comply with Section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this Act) fall within any of paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (1) As Non-Disclosure Agreements are, in the main, made at the request of the claimant and examples of confidentiality clauses are shown below.
The Claimant and the Respondent agree that they will keep the existence and terms of this Agreement confidential (with the exception of disclosure to immediate family and/or relevant professional advisers, provided that those persons agree to keep the information confidential, or where disclosure is required by law). Or The Parties agree that the terms of this Agreement shall remain confidential between themselves and shall not be disclosed to any third party save as required by law and save that the Claimant may disclose the terms to his/her immediate family, HM Revenue and Customs and legal or professional advisers in confidence.
Given the above, disclosure of information by Cleveland Police, if held, could lead to legal action, being taken by the claimant or claimants through the courts system.
In accordance with Section 17(4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this notification acts as a Refusal Notice to your request.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker