The UK parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee has been conducting an inquiry into misogyny in the music industry. We’ve reported on a couple of its evidence sessions: in February and then in September.
Now the committee is honing in on a specific can of worms in the music business that it feels deserves to be kicked over.
It is seeking “to understand the extent to which non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are used specifically to silence victims” in the industry.
“The Committee invites written evidence from people who have signed or have experience of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) which relate to cases of gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment or abuse,” explained its announcement.
Obviously, the whole point of NDAs is that they will not be disclosed, with the threat of legal action hanging over the heads of signatories if they do.
However, in this case, the committee has pointed out that parliament has ‘powers of privilege’ which mean “haring details of an NDA with the Committee cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings, and therefore direct legal action cannot be taken against a person for sharing the information”.
There is a deadline of 20 November to submit relevant written evidence.
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