On 29 April 2026, the Victims and Courts Act 2026 was given Royal Assent, sealing it in final form and securing the protections intended to benefit victims of crime.  This includes amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, meaning further restrictions will soon be placed on the ability of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to prevent victims of crime from speaking up.

Previous regime

Under Section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (VPA 2024),since 1 October 2025 individuals have been able to lawfully make “permitted disclosures” even if they have signed an NDA purporting to restrict their ability to do so.

A disclosure will be ‘permitted’ if it is made by a victim of crime (or a person who reasonably believes that they have been a victim of a crime) about criminal conduct, where that disclosure is made to certain specified persons or regulatory bodies for the purpose of seeking their support or co-operating with them.  For more information on these existing measures, please see our article here.

What is changing?

In October 2025, the Government announced that these provisions were only intended to be temporary, and that the VPA 2024 would be amended in due course to expand the scope of “permitted disclosures” even further. We looked previously at these changes in our article here, following the Government’s announcement and during the progress of the Victim and Courts Act 2026 (the Act) through Parliament.

Now in its final form, the Act removes the existing provisions of Section 17 VPA 2024 regarding NDAs (as described above) and replaces them with new broader provisions that place further restrictions on the ability of NDAs to preclude victims of crime from speaking out.

In summary, the changes are as follows:

• Victims of crime (or those who reasonably believe they are a victim) will be able to make a “permitted disclosure” to anyone and for any purpose. This removes the existing requirement under the VPA 2024 for the disclosure to be made to specified categories of persons (e.g. law enforcement, regulators or key family members) and the disclosures no longer have to be for the purpose of seeking support from the relevant function or co-operating with them.  

• A disclosure can still qualify as a “permitted disclosure” even if the primary purpose of making it was to release the information into the public domain. The original restriction in this regard has been removed from the VPA 2024.

• The definition of “permitted disclosures” has been expanded to include “an allegation of” relevant criminal conduct, as well as allegations or information about the response of any other party to the agreement to the conduct or allegation. This broadens the potential scope from just being disclosures of information about the criminal conduct.

• The Secretary of State will have the power to set out conditions for “excepted agreements”, i.e. situations in which NDAs prohibiting “permitted disclosures” can be signed and enforced validly. It is expected that these will cover, for example, situations where both parties to the NDA genuinely desire confidentiality. However, even in such cases it is unlikely that NDAs will be able to operate as an absolute bar to these types of disclosures.

In practice, these changes mean that disclosures regarding actual or alleged criminal conduct, including the response of another party to that conduct, cannot be prevented in any way by an NDA unless it qualifies as an “excepted agreement”. Without such an agreement, disclosures can lawfully be made to anyone, for any purpose, regardless of any NDA purportedly signed and without the boundaries currently in place under the VPA 2024 around the recipient of or intention behind the disclosure.

It appears from the Act’s final form that regulations will be needed to bring the changes regarding NDAs into force, along with the majority of the other changes under the Act.

What does this mean for employers?

In effect, the amendments implemented by the Act will bring NDA regulation for victims of crime into line with the planned prohibitions under the Employment Rights Act 2025 for NDAs regarding discrimination and harassment.

As a result, employers will need to be prepared for the fact that the sharing of information about discrimination, harassment and / or criminal activity (including allegations of the same) will not generally be able to be restricted via an NDA. Unlike the current VPA 2024 regime or parallel protections under whistleblowing legislation, there will be no requirement for individuals to be sharing information in the public interest or for the purpose of seeking support or justice. Employers will therefore need to be mindful that any allegations, and the way in which they respond to them, could become public in the future.

The restrictions on NDAs under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the VPA 2024 (as amended by the Act) will both provide for the idea of “excepted agreements”, and it will be crucial for employers to understand how they can ensure that an NDA falls within this definition and has the best chance of being enforceable.

Consultation on what should constitute an “excepted agreement” in the context of the Employment Rights Act 2025 was opened on 15 April 2026 (please see our coverage here), and it is possible that the outcome of this consultation will also inform the approach to this concept under the VPA 2024 (as amended by the Act). However, as the scope of NDAs for victims of crime apply to a much wider context than the workplace, some of the suggestions made by the Government in the consultation may not be practicable or appropriate to implement in this context. This question may be covered in the Government’s response to the consultation after it is due to close on 8 July 2026, and employers will need to keep a careful eye on developments to ensure they understand when and how their NDAs will be affected.

BDBF is a leading employment law firm based at Bank in the City of London. If you would like to discuss any issues relating to the content of this article, please contact Rose Lim (RoseLim@bdbf.co.uk), Amanda Steadman (AmandaSteadman@bdbf.co.uk) or your usual BDBF contact.