Non disclosure agreements

Dear Requester

Request for information - FOI12283

Thank you for your e-mail of 8th April 2012.  Ordnance Survey responds to your questions as follows:

I would like to request the following information under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. I would ask you to send your response by e-mail. My questions concern the 3 year period from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2011.

1)  How many current or former staff of your department signed any non disclosure, confidentiality or gagging clause or agreement? Please only include staff signing on their own behalf and exclude officials counter signing such agreements on behalf of your department.
Ordnance Survey does not hold this information.

This is because we have no records of staff entering into 'gagging clauses' or similar agreements preventing discussion of the work of the department, or put in place in response to specific confidentiality issues.

While our staff employment contracts and compromise agreements (relating to redundancies or dismissals) contain standard confidentiality provisions, these are to protect any commercially valuable information, and would not normally prohibit general discussion of Ordnance Survey's work.  Given the context of the questions below, we do not believe these are within the scope of your request.     

2)  How many of the above non disclosure, confidentiality or gagging clauses or agreements prevented the staff members involved from discussing the work of your department with a Member of Parliament?
N/A 

3)  How many of the above non disclosure, confidentiality or gagging clauses or agreements prevented the staff members involved from discussing the work of your department with a journalist?
N/A

4)  How much was paid out in financial settlements accompanying the above non disclosure, confidentiality or gagging clauses or agreements?
N/A

5)  What were the total legal expenses incurred in resolving the matters which required the use of non disclosure, confidentiality or gagging clauses or agreements?
N/A

Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. If you are unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal to our Appeals Officer at:

FOI Appeals Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
SOUTHAMPTON
SO16 0AS

Please include the reference number above. The Appeals Officer will ensure that the process has been followed correctly, questioning any decisions taken regarding the original response and recommending disclosure of additional information if appropriate.

Thank you for your enquiry.