Employment Rights Act 2025

The Employment Rights Act 2025 provides that any agreement preventing a worker from making allegations or disclosures about harassment or discrimination, including disclosures about the employer's response to such allegations, will be void.

The Act also gives the Secretary of State the ability, in the future, to:

• set out what conditions need to be met for an NDA between worker and employer to still be valid, even in cases of relevant discrimination and harassment - this is known as an ‘excepted agreement’
• outline who workers who enter into an ‘excepted agreement’ can still speak to about the relevant harassment and discrimination, and
• expand the group of people who this new measure applies to, beyond the standard definition of ‘worker’ in the Employment Rights Act 1996

The government’s impact assessment offers some insight into what might count as an ‘excepted agreement’ falling outside the scope of the ban - it suggests that where the NDA is requested by a worker it may be permissible.

This will mean that any confidentiality clauses in employment contracts, settlement agreements or other agreements that seek to prevent a worker speaking about an allegation of harassment or discrimination will be null and void.

It remains to be seen what the conditions for an ‘excepted agreement’ will be and how these will differ from the existing conditions for a valid settlement agreement.

It is not currently clear when this ban will come into effect as it was not included in the government’s roadmap for implementation of the Act.