Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/246967
Confidentiality Section 4 To whom can I disclose information? At law employees have duties of confidentiality to their employer. If you are an employee it is therefore not a problem as such to share your employer's confidential information with colleagues who are employed by the same employer. Remember – students, visiting academics, secondees and consultants will not necessarily be employees. Accordingly, if confidential information is to be disclosed to any of them it is always better to try and have a form of written confidentiality agreement in place. In the case of students, this may form part of their student contract. What should I do to protect the information? You may have heard references made to a 'CDA' or 'NDA'. These are abbreviations for "Confidential Disclosure Agreement" or "Non-Disclosure Agreement". If you have to disclose important information always try and put a written agreement of confidentiality in place. The best thing to do is contact your Research Office or IP commercialisation organisation or your supervisor who will no doubt have a sample confidentiality agreement for you to use and will be able to help with putting it in place. Remember you are probably not authorised to sign a confidentiality agreement for your institution. These agreements are all to be taken very seriously. Any information and discussion covered by them must be treated in confidence and not disclosed to anyone else, except as set out in the agreement. If there is any breach of any agreement, the other party may be entitled to seek financial and other compensation (damages) not only from your employer but possibly from you personally. This is obviously a very serious matter. In an environment like a university or NHS Trust it is difficult to supervise closely compliance with all the agreements that have been signed. There is also, of course, a natural desire to publish and discuss work openly, which may on occasions give rise to individuals not realising the importance or the extent of any agreements that have already been signed. Extra care therefore needs to be taken. 26