Maria Miller MP continues to push for NDA reform

This week Maria Miller MP asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Paul Scully to set out the Governments’ plans for tackling the misuse of NDAs.

The Minister, committed that the government would ensure that citizens signing NDAs would remain able to make protected disclosures to the Police, regulators and all prescribed persons including health and legal professionals. Mr Scully also commended Mrs Miller’s campaign and the work of campaigners including Can’t Buy My Silence led by Zelda Perkins to tackle this issue.

On legislative change Mr Scully stressed the need for parliamentary time however reassured the commons that the government will crack down on the usage of NDAs. 

WhistleblowersUK continues to collaborate with this campaign, our CEO Georgina Halford-Hall said, “the commitment by the Government is a step in the right direction to ensure that no one is silenced and that the Public Interest is protected. We join Maria Miller in continuing to press for a full ban on the use of all NDAs”. 

Mary Robinson MP, Chair of the APPG for Whistleblowing said, “I am encouraged by the Minister's comments and will be seeking a further meeting with him to discuss the details of proposals to end the abuse of NDAs by unscrupulous employers and improve the treatment of whistleblowers and the information that they bring forward”.

HSJ report figures reveal the proliferation of NDAs within the National Health Service

It is no secret that the NHS continues to use NDA’s as a means of silencing whistleblowers who alert the public to medical and cultural risks that could harm them. In the report published today in HSJ magazine we can see the tip of the cover up iceberg. Read more about it here.

Since the late 1990’s successive health ministers have condemned the use of settlement agreements, but the figures uncovered by HSJ expose the conservative estimate of circa £30m of taxpayer cash used to shut up whistleblowers and cover up wrongdoing between 2015 and 2021.

This figure is likely to be a fraction of the true figure given the few Trusts who complied with the FOI. 

Georgina Halford-Hall, CEO of WhistleblowersUK says, “We have seen no reduction in the use of settlement agreements or the chilling impact on those who sign them despite the protections afforded whistleblowers in the Public Interest disclosure Act which must be condemned to history. 

We have been leading the campaign for the Office of the Whistleblower that will ban the use of NDAs and will be calling on Health secretary Sajid Javid to take swift and decisive action to end this practice now.”

Mary Robinson MP Chair of the APPG for Whistleblowing says, “Figures released today exposing NHS Trusts who have spent up to £1m gagging whistleblowers makes eye watering reading. Covid has demonstrated the importance of our NHS and the need to encourage and support those who speak out in the prevention of future pandemics.

I have fully supported Maria Millar’s bill to ban NDA’s and continue to press forward proposals set out by Baroness Kramer and the APPG for Whistleblowing that I chair for the introduction of the Office of the Whistleblower. 

This office will enforce the existing laws that ban the use of NDAs to silence whistleblowers and introduce measures that hold to account those who break the rules.”

Mary Robinson MP calls on the Prime Minister to consider reforming the law on whistleblowing

The Chair for the APPG on Whistleblowing, Mary Robinson MP, called on the Prime Minister today to ask Greater Manchester Police to urgently review its internal culture and for reforms to be made to the law on whistleblowing.

In Mary’s question to the Prime Minister during PMQs, the failings of Greater Manchester Police, which led to the force being paced in special measures and the resignation of its Chief Constable, were used to illustrate what the Manchester Evening News recently described as "a culture of denial and secrecy” in the force.

Asking the Prime Minister to support her calls for the internal culture of Greater Manchester Police to be urgently reviewed, Mary reminded her fellow MPs that, “after the horrific murder of Sarah Everard, it is crucial that we tackle the cover-up culture.”

Speaking after PMQs, Mary said, “I am delighted that the Prime Minister supports and agreed with what I said in the House today about whistleblowing and about the failings of Greater Manchester Police. An independent review of the internal culture of Greater Manchester Police will bring to the fore the extent of the problems in the force so that we can understand how to rebuild trust and confidence in GMP that is so severely lacking at the moment. Any organisation that is described as having a culture of denial, obfuscation and secrecy needs a root and branch review of its culture, systems and processes and I sincerely hope that Stephen Watson, the new Chief Constable, will appoint somebody independent with the experience to initiate such a review and make urgent recommendations for improvement. This is what local residents deserve and what local representatives expect of such an important part of our public services.

I am also pleased that the Prime Minister acknowledged the vital importance of people, wherever they are, having the confidence to speak up against wrongdoing. At the moment our current legislation only provides an umbrella for whistleblowers who are classified as workers, and I want to change that. All people, whether they are employees of a police force or any organisation but crucially if they are a member of the public, who uncover wrongdoing and blow the whistle should have protection in law. That is why colleagues on the APPG for Whistleblowing and I are working to bring forward new legislation that will support all people who bravely speak up when they find failings in the work place or anywhere else so that we can provide proper processes for people to be able to speak up against crime, corruption and cover-up with confidence.”

New legislation aiming to tackle mis-use of NDAs

On Tuesday 14th September, in parliament, Maria Miller MP, called for the government to introduce a Bill to ban the mis-use of NDAs. She said 'We have some of the best laws and regulations in the world to protect people from bullying, discrimination and abuse in the workplace, yet we allow scurrilous employers to conceal unlawful wrongdoing through the use of non-disclosure agreements, effectively rendering legal protections that we have voted for in this Chamber null and void.'

She explained "At the moment, non-disclosure agreements are completely unregulated. They can be, and are being, used to attempt to cover up even criminal allegations; they can even include unenforceable conditions to scare employees away from seeking support or redress from the criminal justice system or the employment tribunal system. My Bill would change that by restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements and ensuring that employees could always enjoy the protection of the law as intended."

Referencing the MeToo campaign which highlighted this issue she said "Since the #MeToo campaign started in 2017 and the Women and Equalities Committee published its report in 2019, the scale of the problem has been very difficult for the Government to get their hands around. No statistics are published, because people who have agreed to an NDA may feel that they cannot tell a third party that they have undertaken such an agreement. That is why I support Can’t Buy My Silence, the new campaign launched today by Zelda Perkins, which will enable people who have had bad experiences of NDAs to talk publicly about them for the first time, anonymously."

The House agreed the Bill should be presented and it was read for the first time, and will be read for a second time on Friday 18th March 2022.

If you would like to support Zelda Perkins' 'Can't Buy My Silence' campaign - please do so here - https://actionstorm.org/petitions/cant-buy-my-silence