Derry & Strabane Council 'does not enter into nondisclosure agreements'
The report also included a breakdown of payments included as part of the conciliation agreements with six employees receiving up to £1,000 each, four receiving £3,000 to £5,000, six receiving between £7,000 and £12,000, and two employees receiving between £20,000 and £65,00
Derry City and Strabane District Council says it “does not enter into nondisclosure agreements” (NDAs), following reports of abnormally high numbers among staff in the last five years.
A council report clarified that conciliation agreements, which may include a confidentiality clause, were included as part of a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) response around NDAs.
In June the Belfast Telegraph reported that, since 2021, ten employees have signed NDAs – contracts which are used to protect the sharing of confidential information with unauthorised third parties – while the majority of the other local councils have no active NDAs.
During the June council meeting independent councillor Gary Donnelly requested that council present a report at a future council or Committee meeting, outlining the number of NDAs entered into by council, broken down by business/service area and grade.
Councillor Donnelly said the newspaper’s report had raised questions from the public around council transparency, and an Officers’ report would allow members to ‘better understand why NDAs are deemed necessary’.
The report, which will be presented to members of September’s Governance and Strategic Planning Committee on Tuesday, September 2, stated that council does not enter into NDAs but sometimes enters into ‘conciliation agreements’, prepared by the Labour Relations Agency or following discussion with trade unions, which include a confidentiality clause.
The report clarified that the two agreements ‘serve entirely different legal purposes’ as an NDA protects confidential information, while conciliation agreements settle workplace disputes.
“The key purpose of an NDA is to protect trade secrets, ideas and private business information from being shared with others,” the report added. “Council does not enter into NDA types of agreements.
“A conciliation agreement is a settlement reached after an employment dispute has been resolved. These agreements may be with current employees or with those who are leaving or have left the council.
“Conciliation agreements include a confidentiality provision reflecting best practice standards in the management of employee relation issues within the workplace. These can be initiated in the first instance by the trade union or the employer and are progressed through the conciliation service of the Labour Relations Agency and council’s employment legal representatives. They cannot be used to hide crimes, stop whistle-blowing, or block reports to police.
“In a response to an FOI request in April 2026, council advised that it had entered into 18 NDAs from 2021 until present. It was clarified in a follow up FOI request in June 2026 that eight of these were for former employees and ten for current employees. Whilst not called or termed ‘non-disclosure agreements’, in the interests of transparency conciliation agreements were included in the FOI responses. These were included due to the inclusion within these agreements of a confidentiality clause.
“It is important to note that the confidentiality clause relates to the content of the agreement. It is unclear whether this was the approach taken by all councils on receipt of the FOI request.”
The report also included a breakdown of payments included as part of the conciliation agreements with six employees receiving up to £1,000 each, four receiving £3,000 to £5,000, six receiving between £7,000 and £12,000, and two employees receiving between £20,000 and £65,000.
Higher payments are mostly contractual payments including holiday pay, pay in lieu of notice and severance payments, the report concluded.