So you want to know how some universities waste taxpayer money and who the biggest offenders are?

5,528 UK university staff signed non disclosure agreements (NDA) over the last 3 years.

366 resulted from employment tribunal claims that were settled prior to hearings.

These settlements involved payments to staff of £4.4M and legal costs of £7.1M.

A total of 810 staff submitted claims to employment tribunals.

64 were settled without signing NDAs.

2,361 staff have signed NDAs in connection with research projects. More than half of these were at just one university.

2,801 have signed NDAs for reasons other than tribunal claims or research such as restructuring, grievances or disputes.

The Questions:

Q1 Over the last 3 years how many current or former university staff have submitted claims to the employment tribunal service?

Q2 How many of these were settled prior to a full hearing date?

Q3 How many of these settlements involved the insertion of a non disclosure (commonly known as gagging) clause in the terms of the settlement?

Q4 What is the total figure that has been paid out in these settlements?

Q5 What has the total expenditure on legal expenses been in relation to the above disputes?

Q6 Over the last 3 years how many current or former staff have signed non disclosure agreements purely in relation to the confidentiality of research activities?

Q7 Over the last 3 years how many current or former staff have signed non disclosure agreements for reasons not covered above?

Top 5 Employment Tribunal Claims
Manchester 40
Leeds Met 31
UCL 27
Birmingham 25
LSE 23

Top 5 Settlement NDAs
Manchester 26
Birmingham 20
Bristol 17
UCL 15
Manchester Met 11

Top 5 Settlement Costs
Liverpool John Moores £ 362,108
Manchester £ 247,881
Bristol £ 165,000
East London £ 156,210
Cambridge £ 148,505

Top 5 NDAs For Other Reasons
Manchester 669
Glasgow Caledonian 247
Cumbria 148
Plymouth Marjon 131
West of Scotland 136

Check how your university rates: http://www.academicfoi.com/untoldstories/