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Justin Welby tells Church of England to stop using NDAs amid racism claims

Reuters Archbishop of Canterbury Justin WelbyReuters

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England should not use non-disclosure agreements, after BBC Panorama revealed they were being used to silence staff complaining of racism.

Justin Welby said he had not been aware confidentiality agreements were being used to stop people speaking publicly.

He told Times Radio the documentary was "rightly shaming".

Mr Welby added that he was "horrified" to hear the extent of racist abuse within the Church.

"I have said many times that I am totally against NDAs [non-disclosure agreements]. NDAs are unacceptable. I am just horrified by that and horrified by the fact of racism," he said.

Together with the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, he has written to senior members of the Church, telling them confidentiality agreements are no longer to be used.

The Church of England is releasing a report later this week, which it says will include plans to address racism within its own ranks.

Dr Elizabeth Henry, the Church's former adviser on race relations, quit her job last year because she said she felt disillusioned.

"I felt frustrated by the lack of progress with issues of racism," she told Panorama.

Dr Elizabeth Henry
Dr Henry stood down as an adviser on race relations last year

She said one incident from 2019 particularly stood out.

"A really shocking incident was a young black man who received a picture of a banana. But that banana had his head superimposed upon it - and underneath it said: Banana Man. That is a deeply offensive and deeply racist image," she said.

"He took it to HR [human resources department] and he did file a grievance. And the decision was that it wasn't racist.

"That person left, and he received a very small compensation - however he was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement."

That agreement means the BBC cannot say where the incident took place. The total number of non-disclosure agreements is also unknown.

The Church told Panorama that while it cannot comment on individual cases, "any [racist] behaviour of the sort described by Dr Henry is unacceptable".