NDAs and Criminal Offences – Amendment to Victims and Courts Bill Announced
Yesterday the government has announced plans to introduce a new law to enable victims and direct witnesses of crime to speak to anyone for any reason about crimes regardless of any NDA they have signed.
The legislation is not specific to employment situations but it will impact on the use of NDAs in employment contracts and settlement agreements, essentially making the NDA void to the extent that it purports to prevent disclosure of information to anyone, including their friends, the press, or on social media, about relevant criminal conduct they have suffered.
This change builds on recent new laws contained in Section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act, only introduced on 1 October 2025, that permit victims of crime to make permitted disclosures to categories of people for specific reasons, for example, to the police, a qualified lawyer, or victim support services.
This latest announcement builds on the governments drive to ensure NDAs can no longer be legally used to silence victims from speaking out about criminal behaviour.