Significant changes to harassment law in the UK from 30 October 2026

On 30 October 2026, two significant changes to harassment law will come into effect under the Employment Rights Act 2025 ('ERA 2025').

Employers will need to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees, workers and certain others, such as contractors who work under contracts that require them to perform work personally (referred to below as 'Employees'). Further, a new liability will be introduced to prevent unlawful harassment of Employees by third parties. 

Sexual harassment

Currently, employers are already required to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. From 30 October, this will change to all reasonable steps. The addition of the word 'all' to the relevant legislation is an important and onerous change for employers because, if an employer does not take all such steps (e.g. they miss one reasonable step), they could face both a claim for compensation and a potential investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission ('EHRC') and/or another regulator. 

Third party harassment

From 30 October, employers must not permit a third party to harass their Employees in the course of their work. They will be treated as permitting this if they failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing the Employee. Again, note the use of the word 'all' here and the potential for claim(s) / investigation(s) if an employer gets it wrong.

A 'third party' means anyone other than the employer and one of its Employees – so it includes clients, customers, and suppliers. The new duty also applies to all forms of unlawful harassment, not just sexual harassment.  

What does 'all reasonable steps' mean in practice?

What constitutes a reasonable step will vary depending on factors such as the size and nature of the organisation, the risks within the workplace, the employer's resources and the practical measures available. However, the crucial question is likely to be whether the employer can demonstrate that it took every reasonable step that was open to it.  

Employers are expected to adopt a proactive approach. By way of guidance, employers should be taking the following steps (but 'all reasonable steps' might include others, depending on the outcome of the risk assessment mentioned below and the other factors above).

Risk assessment

Employers should undertake an assessment of harassment risks within their organisation. This should consider how staff interact with third parties (whether in person or remotely via technology, alone or with colleagues, in the workplace or elsewhere, in business development situations etc) and pay particular attention to dynamics such as junior staff, staff with particular protected characteristics, high value clients, other third party contacts where there is a power imbalance, emotionally charged situations and other high risk environments. This is likely to necessitate looking at individual teams and roles, and the outcome of the assessment should be documented and reviewed from time to time.

Strengthen safeguards

Policies and procedures on harassment are important, but unlikely to be sufficient. Organisations should ensure that they implement effective reporting, monitoring and training tools to give staff the confidence to raise concerns and leaders the confidence to spot and deal with harassment (including preventing recurrences). These steps will normally be guided by the risk assessment but might also include certain safety barriers around high-risk clients or situations.  

Set expectations with third parties

Employers should review contracts and commercial arrangements to ensure that expectations around respectful behaviour are clearly expressed. Third parties should be expressly told of the employer's behavioural requirements, not just in general terms but also in more specific terms covering harassment and addressing the potential consequences for them of breach of these requirements. This needs to be externally visible and reinforced at appropriate points according to the outcome of the risk assessment.  It is likely to include, as a minimum, provisions in the contractual documentation with such third parties.

Make reporting processes accessible and trusted

Employees must have confidence that concerns can be raised safely and will be addressed appropriately. Reporting routes should be clearly communicated, easy to access and trusted by staff.  Employers should also have clear protocols for dealing with third parties who engage in unacceptable conduct (including conducting defensible investigations). Simply removing the affected Employee from the relationship may create additional risks, including allegations of victimisation.

Maintain a clear audit trail

Evidence is likely to play a crucial role in future claims. Employers should document risk assessments, training initiatives, investigations, decisions and other preventative measures. In many cases, being able to demonstrate what was done may be just as important as the measures themselves.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 ('ERA 2025') provides for regulations to be introduced to specify what reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment might look like.  In the meantime, employers should refer to the EHRC's non-statutory technical guidance.

Comment

These changes, particularly those in relation to third parties, will require a shift in mindset for employers. The key question is increasingly likely to be not only whether harassment occurred, but whether the employer can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent it. In effect, employers must ask themselves: 'have we done everything we reasonably could to prevent harassment?'  

This shift will mean addressing some tricky issues, for example, identifying and dealing with patterns of sexual harassment within the organisation to prevent recurrence (even after a grievance has been resolved), or having uncomfortable conversations with important and commercially valuable clients. Given the lack of control that employers have over third parties, it may be particularly challenging for employers to investigate allegations of harassment by them. However, it will be important to address these challenges to avoid claims and other potential action, including the reputational damage that could ensue.

This article is authored by Melissa Paz, special counsel, and Alexandra Thompson, associate, in the UK employment team.