UK Employee NDAtemplate.

Open the DOCX in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice. Find-replace the highlighted [FIELDS]. The template's inline guidance walks you through each field.

An employee confidentiality agreement — also called an employee NDA — is a contract between an employer and an employee (or prospective employee) that legally obliges the employee to keep specified business information confidential. In the UK it must include statutory carve-outs for whistleblowing under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, regulatory reporting, and (once in force) disclosure of workplace harassment or discrimination under the Employment Rights Act 2025. It is not the same as an employment contract but often sits alongside one.

A separate employee NDA gives you cleaner, more detailed confidentiality obligations and is easier to enforce than a buried clause in a long employment contract. It also lets you update confidentiality terms without redrafting the whole employment contract. Where an employment contract contains only a brief confidentiality clause, a standalone employee NDA is strongly advisable for senior hires, staff with access to trade secrets, or IP-generating roles.

UK law requires NDAs to preserve the right to report crime, regulatory breaches, and protected disclosures. The carve-out is tagged [mandatory] in the template and cannot lawfully be removed. Note for legal sector clients: from 2 June 2026, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is a formally designated prescribed person under PIDA — workers regulated by the SRA (trainees, paralegals, clerks, agency workers) may make protected disclosures directly to the SRA, and no NDA clause can prevent this.

Under s.202A Employment Rights Act 2025 (expected in force October 2026 or 2027), any NDA clause that seeks to silence disclosure of relevant harassment or discrimination — including non-disparagement clauses — will be void. This template's mandatory carve-out already preserves those disclosures. However, until final regulations are published, take independent legal advice before using any employment NDA in a harassment or discrimination context.

Yes. Section 250 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, in force from 29 June 2026 (SI 2026/689), creates automatic vicarious criminal liability for organisations where a senior manager commits any criminal offence within their actual or apparent authority. This means an NDA clause that prevents a victim — including an employee — from disclosing such a crime to the police, prosecutors, or regulatory bodies may be used as evidence of the organisation suppressing its own criminal liability. This template's mandatory Clause 1 carve-out explicitly and unconditionally preserves the right to report criminal offences to the police or any law-enforcement agency, to cooperate with criminal investigations and prosecutions, and to report to regulators including the SRA. That carve-out takes precedence over every other provision in this Agreement and cannot be removed or limited. If criminal conduct by a senior manager is relevant to your situation, take independent legal advice.

Often no. UK courts are sceptical of post-employment non-competes. Non-solicitation usually gives you most of the protection.

No. This is a confidentiality agreement to sit alongside an employment contract.

Optional. If you keep the IP assignment block, work created in the course of employment vests in the employer on creation.

Yes, but consider whether fresh consideration is needed, take advice if unsure.