Key takeaways
Government moves to restrict NDAs for victims
New rules aim to protect survivors from silencing agreements.
Employers must review confidentiality practices now
Policies should align with evolving legal and ethical standards.
Transparency and safeguarding take centre stage
Organisations expected to prioritise victim rights over secrecy.
As we reported earlier this year, from 1 October 2025, confidentiality provisions (NDAs) are now void and unenforceable if they preclude someone who is, or reasonably believes they are, a crime victim from disclosing information to specified persons. On 20 October 2025, the government announced its intention to extend this bar on NDAs via an amendment to the Victims and Courts Bill, which is currently progressing through parliament.
The current regime only protects crime victims if they make disclosures to specified persons (including, among others, to the police, regulators, lawyers and clinicians) and provided the purpose of the disclosure is not to release the information into the public domain.
Assuming the amendment is accepted, once it is brought into force, it will allow crime victims and direct witnesses of crime to share their experiences with anyone, for any purpose, including with their family, friends, employers and journalists, without fear of legal repercussions.
Alex Davies-Jones MP, Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Minister, argues that these reforms are necessary because “NDAs are too often used to sweep criminality under the carpet – trapping victims into silence and denying them justice”.
However, in an important caveat, the amendment provides the Secretary of State with powers to:
Set criteria for “excepted NDAs” in limited, legitimate circumstances; and
Specify situations where, even where an excepted NDA exists, disclosures will always be allowed.
It is not yet clear when this extension to the restrictions on NDAs for crime victims/witnesses will come into force, although it is likely to be 2026 or 2027 at the earliest. We will report any developments.
