The Department for Business and Trade has published an Options Assessment for regulations to prevent the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of the government’s open consultation on this issue.
The government launched a consultation on its proposals to prevent the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases involving workplace harassment and discrimination on 15 April 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a measure which will void any provision in an agreement (such as a contract of employment or settlement agreement) between a worker and their employer that prevents a worker from speaking out about relevant harassment or discrimination.
The Options Assessment sets out the likely direct monetary costs to businesses of implementing the policy, with estimated one-off familiarisation costs of £47.8m and one-off implementation costs of £2.4m. Despite these costs, the Options Assessment highlights these measures could benefit businesses through “reduced workforce turnover, lower absenteeism and improved productivity”.
The consultation seeks views on the conditions which need to be met for a NDA to still be validly entered into (an ‘excepted agreement’) in cases of harassment and discrimination, the individuals or bodies who workers covered by an excepted agreement can speak to about the harassment and discrimination, irrespective of what their NDA says (‘permitted disclosure’) and expanding the types of individuals the legislation applies to i.e. self-employed individuals.
The consultation is open for responses until 11.59pm on 8 July 2026. The government will publish a response, with the changes expected to be implemented in 2027.
