NFRS 2022 85 - Non-disclosure agreements

You asked for:

1. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements with former staff at your fire brigade have been signed as part of the process of their employment being terminated in the following years:
   • 2017
   • 2018
   • 2019
   • 2020
   • 2021
   • 2022
2. For each non-disclosure agreement in answer to Q1, please provide a figure for the total settlement in each case.
3. For each non-disclosure agreement in answer to Q1, please provide the role of the individual concerned (e.g. firefighter/crew manager)

Our Response:

1. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements with former staff at your fire brigade have been signed as part of the process of their employment being terminated in the following years:

   Answer: - Please be advised that the below data can refers to all forms of termination of employment, including but not limited to redundancy.

   Year	Non-disclosure agreements
   2017	0
   2018	0
   2019	14
   2020	2
   2021	1
   2022	0

2. 2. For each non-disclosure agreement in answer to Q1, please provide a figure for the total settlement in each case.

   Answer: - Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has deemed part of the information requested exempt by virtue of section 40(2) personal information of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. That by breaking the data down by each individual case provides a greater capacity for identification.

   Year	Settlement
   2017	N/A
   2018	N/A
   2019	£488,226.01
   2020	£52,740.30
   2021	Exempt s40(2)
   2022	N/A

3. For each non-disclosure agreement in answer to Q1, please provide the role of the individual concerned (e.g. firefighter/crew manager)

   Answer: - Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has deemed part of the information requested exempt by virtue of section 40(2) personal information of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. That by breaking the data down by each individual case provides a greater capacity for identification.

   Role
   Station Manager
   Watch Manager
   Crew Manager
   Firefighter
   Support Service Personnel

Section 40: - Personal Information

(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—

1. it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and
2. the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.

(3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

1. would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
2. would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded.

(3B) The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).

(4A) The third condition is that—

1. (a) on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act 2018, or
2. (b) on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.

Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as an Absolute and Class Based type exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried nor must Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.