Yolanda Hamblen of IFPO analyses discrimination in the workplace, tribunals and the end of hidden truths, in this Security Buyer column #
For decades, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) have played a quiet but powerful role in how organisations manage allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment. Often framed as routine confidentiality clauses, they have in practice been used to suppress uncomfortable truths, keeping allegations out of sight, reputations intact and patterns of behaviour unexamined.
That landscape is now shifting. The UK government’s move to ban NDAs that silence victims of harassment and discrimination marks a significant intervention in workplace accountability. Clauses that prevent individuals from speaking about discriminatory treatment are set to become legally void. The intent is clear: abuse and misconduct should not be contractually buried.
However, this reform does not exist in isolation. It arrives at a moment when tribunal and pre-tribunal data reveal a more troubling reality. Discrimination and sexual harassment are not receding. The legal system is seeing their consequences in sustained and growing volume. For employers across the security sector, that context matters.
Discrimination remains a very large share of claims
The most reliable insight into workplace disputes does not come from anecdote or internal reporting. It comes from the data flowing through the legal system.
ACAS provides a particularly strong indicator because almost all employment tribunal claims must first pass through Early Conciliation. In the most recent full reporting year, nearly 29% of all Early Conciliation cases related to discrimination. In practical terms, almost one in three disputes entering the formal resolution pipeline involved allegations of unequal or unlawful treatment.
When cases move beyond conciliation and into litigation, the proportion rises further. Over 50% of all Employment Tribunal claim forms (ET1s) submitted in the same period related to discrimination.
This is not a marginal issue. It is not a declining category gradually being resolved through policy statements or awareness campaigns. Discrimination now represents the single largest driver of formal employment litigation in the UK.
For security businesses operating in environments that are often decentralised, client-facing and operationally pressured, that reality cannot be dismissed as a broader labour market trend. It has direct commercial implications.
Where sexual harassment sits, and why it matters
Public debate frequently focuses on whether sexual harassment claims are rising or falling. The difficulty is that UK legal statistics rarely present sexual harassment as a standalone category. Instead, such claims are usually pursued as harassment related to sex, or within broader sex discrimination cases under the Equality Act.
In practical terms, sexual harassment is embedded within discrimination litigation rather than isolated from it. When sex discrimination claims rise or remain stable, it is highly likely that sexual harassment allegations form a significant part of that volume, even if they are not labelled explicitly.
For employers, the distinction is largely academic. Sexual harassment has not been eliminated by policy statements or training programmes. It continues to surface in the same legal channel as other discrimination claims and in significant numbers.
In the security sector, this has additional complexity. Staff frequently work alone or in small teams. Supervisory structures may be remote. Client environments may introduce power imbalances that complicate reporting. In such contexts, harassment can remain unchallenged until escalation becomes unavoidable.
