Powerful questions HR need to ask themselves following the ban on NDAs

The UK government announced in July 2025, its plans to ban NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) for use in cases of harassment, discrimination and sexual harassment at work.

Whilst there is a relatively short window of time to go before this implementation comes in to force, the announcement should serve as an early warning for employers to act now. Why? Well, you will very soon no longer have a cheque book big enough to cover up abuse, harassment and systemic failure that causes harm to employees in your organisation.

This change marks the end of silencing victims with gagging clauses in settlement agreements, and frankly, the end of reputational risk management masquerading as a commercial and normal HR practise.

What exactly is changing?

As of this new amendment to the Employment Rights Bill:

• NDAs and confidentiality clauses can no longer be enforced in cases of sexual harassment, harassment, discrimination, or abuse at work.

• Victims will have the right to speak, to the press, to colleagues, to future employers, regardless of what your legal team has them sign.

• Employers who continue using NDAs in this way could face legal consequences and public scrutiny.

And so, the situation reminds me of a series of powerful question that I first heard from Rachel Meadowcroft, a Fractional CPO, during our time working in a PE environment together –

1. What would the tribunal say?

2. What would the media say?

3. What would a coroner say?

3 powerful questions that every HR professional should have in their arsenal to provoke risk assessment and reflection from senior business leaders.

These questions become very poignant in the context of managing your culture in a legal landscape where silencing victims of serious, discriminatory and abusive misconduct is no longer an option.

What an NDA ban means in practise for employers

This landmark change will shape the way you think about and manage risk, culture, and leadership.

Here are some things to think about:

1. You can’t buy silence with an NDA anymore

Historically, employers have held the power to thrown money at ‘problems’, by negotiating settlements wrapped in tight NDAs. These operate under the illusion that if no one talks, no harm is done. The businesses reputation is preserved irrespective of the trauma caused to the individual.

That era is over, and so here is a scenario to consider:

If a senior leader sexually harasses a junior colleague, and your response is to “manage it internally” and “negotiate an exit,” for the junior employee, because you can’t “afford” to lose the senior management team member, that colleague can now go public - with the full protection of the law.

What’s your plan then?

2. Where healthy culture thrives, compliance naturally flows

Ticking boxes, having mandatory e-learning, updating policies, none of that stops abuse. None of it prevents someone from being victim blamed through the investigation process after being groped at a Christmas party, or bullied out of their role due to relational power dynamics in your teams.

If your strategy is “just enough not to get sued,” I can promise that at some point, you are going to in fact get “sued” and your practices are unfit for the contemporary workplace.

Where management confidence and healthy culture thrives, compliance naturally lives. And so, what do you know about your culture? When did you last check in on its health, meaningfully?

3. Prevention needs to be the default position

We’ve spent decades building and enforcing deterrents. And this isn’t just an HR or organisational default position, deterrents are the default position across all of our judicial and moral systems.

Deterrents rely on a fear of consequences. We use legislation, policies and zero tolerance stances to communicate what is acceptable and unacceptable, in the hope that consequences for non-compliance will deter people from engaging in unwanted or illegal conduct.

However, we know that this is ineffective.

And that puts us in a really psychologically difficult place knowing that even with severe consequences, we can’t control perpetrator behaviour.

And so we shift our focus on to the victims of harassment and abuse. Whether this is through silencing them with NDAs and encouraging the internalisation of blame, or whether it is simply through our systems and norms.

For example, we know most people don’t report harassment and abuse. Why? Because they don’t trust the system. Because they don’t feel they will be believed or taken seriously. Because retaliation is common. Because no one wants to be the “problem” for speaking up.

Prevention means:

• Psychological safety.

• Disrupting harmful power dynamics.

• Humanising the HR profession.

• Empowered and active bystanders.

• Leaders who actually walk the talk.

• Trauma-informed responses, not interrogations disguised as investigations.

This is the difference between a workplace people endure and one where they thrive.

This is the difference between an outdated and autocratic workplace struggling to survive, and a contemporary and trauma-informed workplace that will thrive.

Why a trauma informed culture?

Most organisations are still culturally blind to how trauma shows up in their systems. They handle disclosures like HR crises, not human harm. They automatically think, how do we protect the business, before they think how can we protect the person(s) at the centre of this.

A ban on NDAs will force us to think about protecting the person first, and ultimately this is what will protect the business.

A trauma-informed workplace isn’t just fluffy nonsense, it actually makes commercial sense:

1. It reduces litigation.

2. It increases trust.

3. It builds loyalty and retention.

And now, with this NDA ban, it becomes a business necessity.

What could you do now?

• Audit your use of settlement agreements containing NDA’s. If you’ve relied on them in the past, review every case. Would you survive scrutiny if the NDA was removed?

• Update reporting pathways. Make them accessible, confidential, and human.

• Train your managers. Not on legal liability, but on active listening, power dynamics, bystander intervention, harassment prevention, prevention of sexual harassment, consent, boundaries, banter, and early intervention.

• Fix the culture, don’t patch the PR. If your instinct is to protect the brand, you’ve already missed the point.

The NDA ban is not the end of a long campaign, it’s the beginning of a new era

We are entering an era where cover ups are not legal, and culture is your only protection. You cannot pay your way out through silencing experiences of workplace harassment and abuse anymore. You cannot silence people and expect loyalty. You cannot perform compliance and call it prevention.

You either build a safe workplace, or you get exposed.

Is your organisation ready to operate in a world without NDAs?

We are workplace sexual misconduct and harassment prevention specialists, supporting companies ready to do the real work, trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and rooted in cultural change. If you’re ready to be one of them, or are simply just curious, let’s talk.

E: help@onesourchr.co.uk | T: 01709 460500