NFRS 2023 44 - Non-disclosure agreements

You asked for:

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, We request the following information:

1. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements with former or current staff atyour fire brigade have been signed in the following years:
   1. 2020
   2. 2021
   3. 2022
   4. Between 1/1/2023-1/3/2023
2. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements were signed by female former orcurrent staff in the following years:
   1. 2020
   2. 2021
   3. 2022
   4. Between 1/1/2023-1/3/2023
3. For each year please state the total amount paid out to staff through non-disclosure agreements in the following years:
   1. 2020
   2. 2021
   3. 2022
   4. Between 1/1/2023-1/3/2023

Our Response:

1. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements with former or current staff atyour fire brigade have been signed in the following years: Answer: -
   1. 4
   2. 3
   3. No Information Held
   4. No Information Held
2. Please state how many non-disclosure agreements were signed by female former orcurrent staff in the following years: Answer: - 3 between 01/01/2020 up to the 31/12/2021. A precise breakdown of the requested information has been deemed exempt, by virtue of section 40(2) Personal Information of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
3. For each year please state the total amount paid out to staff through non-disclosure agreements in the following years: Answer: -
   1. £62,240.30
   2. £70,550.45
   3. No Information Held
   4. No Information Held 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. on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right of accessby the data subject) for access to personal data, the information would be withheldin 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 relianceon 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.