Scottish Government employment tribunals: FOI release

Information requested

1. The number of employment tribunal cases that the Scottish Government has settled using a settlement agreement, compromise agreement, or similar, for each calendar year from 2020 to 2025 (up to the current date).

2. Of those settled cases, the number that included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), confidentiality clause, gagging order, or any similar provision that restricts the disclosure of information related to the case or the Scottish Government, broken down by calendar year from 2005 to 2025.

3. The total financial cost of these settlements that included an NDA or similar clause, broken down by calendar year.

4. If possible, please also indicate the general reasons for these tribunals (e.g., discrimination, unfair dismissal, etc.), without disclosing personal information.

5. Please include all settlements involving the Scottish Government in relation to the Government and civil service itself, as well as publicly affiliated organisations such as Police Scotland and the NHS. A breakdown of which organisation is involved would be appreciated.

Response

Our response covers permanent staff employed, or who were employed, in the Scottish Government Core Directorates-General business areas (see annex A for details), for the period 1 January 2020 to 29 September 2025.

As we do not hold information for other organisations, such as Police Scotland and the NHS, you will need to contact those organisations directly.

In part 1 of your request, you have asked for information covering the period 2020 to 2025. You have then asked for information for the period 2005 to 2025. As we do not hold information going back to 2005, the following table sets out the information held from 2013 onwards:

Table 1:

Calendar Year	Number of ET cases settled using settlement/compromise agreement or similar:	Number which included an NDA/confidentiality clause
2025	1	0
2024	3	0
2023	3	0
2022	2	0
2021	3	1
2020	0	0
2019	0	0
2018	1	0
2017	3	0
2016	1	0
2015	1	0
2014	0	0
2013	1	1

The Scottish Government does not include confidentiality clauses in such settlement agreements as a matter of course. However, at the request of the employee or their legal representative, settlement agreements may include a voluntary provision whereby the parties agree to keep the agreement confidential and not disclose its details to third parties.

Inclusion of such a clause protects the rights of the employee who may have legitimate concerns that disclosure of the terms and circumstances of the agreement and their identity would impact negatively on their privacy and employability.

It is important to note that inclusion of a confidentiality clause does not, under any circumstances, prevent an employee from making a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation.

In relation to parts 3 and 4 of your request, while our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information). This exemption applies because the information is the personal data of third parties and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles set out in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the public interest test, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500482779 - Information released - Annex A

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