Key facts
- A government official said extending NDA protections beyond employees is the sort of change under consideration.
- The Employment Rights Act bars NDAs from stopping employees disclosing possible harassment or discrimination.
- Lisa Nandy is due to convene a roundtable with TV, film, publishing and sport representatives next week.
- Walliams, a television personality and children's author, denies any wrongdoing.
- Campaigner Zelda Perkins said extending harassment and discrimination protections beyond employees is absolutely key.
- Ministers are also weighing a longer-term change to charge adults who have penetrative sex with a child under 16 with rape.
Ministers are looking at ways to change the law quickly to widen protections that stop non-disclosure agreements being used to cover up harassment or discrimination, after allegations about David Walliams. A government official said one option is extending measures that stop NDAs silencing employees so they also cover freelancers and volunteers.
The official said: "We are very much in the space of looking at areas that we can change quickly and without legislation if there are loopholes." The official added that extending protections beyond employees is the sort of thing under consideration but that it is still early.
The Guardian and ITV News published an investigation that said Walliams used his power and status to prey on young women for sex. Reports said an employer used NDAs to silence at least one woman connected to him. Walliams, a television personality and top-selling children's author, denies any wrongdoing.
The Employment Rights Act bars NDAs from being used to stop employees disclosing possible harassment or discrimination, and a recent government consultation examined extending that protection more widely. Under other legislation, NDAs cannot stop victims or witnesses of crime giving information to specified bodies such as police or regulators; another possible change would let people speak about crimes to anyone, including the media.
Answering questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Nandy agreed with a Conservative question about the need to stop NDAs being abused and said they were "central" to the problem of enforced silence. She said she was working closely with the Ministry of Justice and that the issue would be part of a roundtable she convenes with the creative industries next week.
Zelda Perkins, a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein who broke an NDA barring her from discussing his behavior, said she hoped the government, led by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, would be galvanized by the Walliams allegations. She said extending protections over harassment and discrimination beyond employees is absolutely key.
Separately, longer-term moves are likely to lead to a law change so that any adult who has penetrative sex with a child aged under 16 would automatically be charged with rape, a recommendation of Louise Casey's review into sexual abuse grooming gangs published last year. An official said the change was happening anyway but that pressure to move quickly had grown in the light of the week, and that no timing is known.