Total Number of NDAs

1. Provide the total number of NDAs, confidentiality clauses, or settlement agreements containing gagging provisions entered into with service users or external stakeholders between 1 January 2022 and the date of this request.



2. Provide the total number of NDAs, confidentiality clauses, or settlement agreements containing gagging provisions entered into with employees (including former employees) between 1 January 2022 and the date of this request.



3. Provide copies of standard templates or any internal policy documents governing the use of NDAs and confidentiality clauses within:

· Adult Social Care

· Legal Services

· Human Resources



4. Provide the total number of NDAs or settlement agreements containing gagging provisions that were drafted, reviewed, or facilitated by external legal firms or external legal representatives acting on behalf of Lincoln Council between 1 January 2022 and the date of this request. For clarity, this includes any agreement where an external firm advised the Council or the other party, regardless of whether the Council's own Legal Service was also involved.



5. Provide any internal correspondence (including emails or memos) sent between the Legal Service, Human Resources, or external legal firms engaged by the Council between 1 January 2022 and the date of this request that discusses:

· Whether the Council is required to report the volume of NDAs to the public, or

· Whether the Legal Service or external legal representation should be treated as separate entities for FOIA purposes regarding NDAs or settlement agreements.

1.           We do not hold this information

2.           Information related to confidentiality clauses is held within our ‘settlement agreements’ which we enter into with employees. Since January 2022 we have entered 28 settlement agreements with employees within the council and 22 employees within schools.

3.           The only active template we use with a confidentiality clause is from the settlement agreement, see attached

We do not use external legal firms as we have our own in-house legal services

4.           Point 1 - Any information in scope at this part would be internal correspondence between the Council, its Legal Services and its HR department.

Point 2 - We do not use external legal firms. Any FOI requests regarding NDAs or settlement agreements can be referred to our legal advisors should we require advice. Our in-house legal services are not considered a separate entity for the purpose of FOIs

This question requires us to locate information regarding the 2 points requested. This would require a search of every record created for the period since January 2022. This is not information which is routinely published.

Section 12 FOIA – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit

Section 12(1) FOIA states; Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

The FOI Code of Practice

If a public authority calculates that responding to a request will take it over the cost limit it is not obliged to provide a substantive response. The cost limit is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour. For central government departments the cost limit is £600 (24 hours) and for all other public authorities is £450 (18 hours).

Public authorities can only include certain activities when estimating whether responding to a request would breach the cost limit.

These are:

•            establishing whether information is held.

•            locating and retrieving information; and

•            extracting relevant information from the document containing it.

Public authorities do not have to search for information in scope of a request until the cost limit is reached, even if the applicant requests that they do so. If responding to one part of a request would exceed the cost limit, public authorities do not have to provide a response to any other parts of the request. The cost limit can be applied on the basis of a reasonable estimate at the time the request is received. Public authorities are not under any obligation to make a precise calculation although estimates should be sensible and realistic.

Whilst we have considered that Section 12 is applicable to the last question, we have sufficiently answered the remainder of the request. We realise we have to provide advice and assistance although the question will remain difficult to answer. The complexity of the last question even if it is revised would still require onerous and time-consuming activity to locate the information.

We have reported 50 settlement agreements and if we were to review those files only to find out if each of the points was raised, we would then have a separate consideration of whether the correspondence is protected by another exemption under FOIA. Whilst we have been as transparent as we lawfully can be, we hope you will recognise this question is technically very difficult to respond to. We conclude our decision to part answer your request and apply S12 FOIA to the last question.

If you have any queries or wish to clarify any detail in the response you have received, please do not hesitate to contact us customerinformationservice@icasework.lincolnshire.gov.uk

However, if you are dissatisfied with how your request been handled, or the response you have received, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to:

Lincolnshire County Council, Customer Information Service, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln, LN1 1YL Or emailed to customerinformationservice@icasework.lincolnshire.gov.uk.