Important changes to workplace harassment law are due to take effect on 30 October 2026. For employers, the key message is simple: prevention must be proactive, thorough and supported by evidence. This article explains what is changing and the practical steps organisations can begin taking now.

 

The Employment Rights Act 2025 increases employers’ responsibilities for preventing harassment at work. From 30 October 2026, employers will be expected to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. They will also need to protect employees and workers from harassment by third parties, including customers, clients and contractors. These reforms strengthen the preventive duty introduced in October 2024 and restore a form of third-party protection that was removed more than a decade ago.

A note on government guidance

At the time of publication of this article, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has still not updated its “Sexual harassment and harassment at work: technical guidance” which will be pivotal to understanding the practical impact of the changes.

Types of harassment involved

Unlawful harassment is behaviour related to a ‘relevant protected characteristic’ that has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The relevant protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation.

Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect noted above.

Unlawful harassment also includes less favourable treatment of a worker because they submit to, or reject, sexual harassment or harassment related to sex or gender reassignment

Current position and what’s changing

Employers are already under a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers by colleagues and by third parties. Since October 2024, this has been an anticipatory duty – setting it apart from the prevention of harassment in relation to other relevant protected characteristics – meaning there is no requirement for an act of harassment to take place before the employer faces enforcement action.

From 30 October 2026, the compliance threshold will rise. Employers will need to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, rather than showing that they took only some reasonable precautions. An organisation may conclude that its current arrangements already meet this standard, but it should still revisit its risk assessment and retain evidence supporting that conclusion.

Because the requirement moves from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”, it will be useful for employers to keep a note of those steps that were deemed to be not reasonable, and why. The duty will not become a requirement to take all possible steps; all reasonable steps are needed.

Employers are not currently liable for third party harassment against their workers. Whilst they must take preventative steps against third party sexual harassment, non-compliance with which can result in a referral to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), there is no employment tribunal route to compensation for a worker who has been harassed by a third party. Pre 2013, this liability did exist in a complicated form. Too complicated, it seems, to work in practice hence the removal.

The re-ignited third party harassment liability requires employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent it. Again, note the inclusion of the word “all”. These changes even the playing field in terms of what is expected from employers. Employers must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment of all forms by colleagues and of all forms by third parties. The separate enforcement routes continue to apply as prevention of sexual harassment remains anticipatory.

Post October position example 1: An employee may complain to the EHRC that their employer is not taking all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by colleagues or third parties even where no harassment or allegation of harassment has taken place. This is the anticipatory duty. As a defence, the employer must show that they do in fact take all reasonable steps to prevent it. Where this is not the case, the EHRC will work with the employer to ensure compliance. Continued non-compliance will result in fines.

Post October position example 2: An employee is harassed on the grounds of their age by a supplier of its employer. (a third party). The employee may now make a harassment claim against their employer at the employment tribunal. If the employer cannot show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it, they will be liable for compensation for harassment even though they do not employ the harasser. This tribunal route is newly available because of the October 2026 changes. Current laws do, however, permit this enforcement route if the harasser was an employee of the employer.

Assessing the risks

A harassment risk assessment should identify where, when and how inappropriate conduct could arise. Employers should consider factors such as late-night working, business travel, social events, alcohol, isolated locations, customer-facing roles, power imbalances, temporary or agency workers and digital communications. The assessment should reflect the organisation’s actual working arrangements and be reviewed when roles, locations or working practices change.

No employer should consider that there are no risks of harassment occurring in the course of their workers’ work, no matter how small a business is. Where human interaction takes place, a theoretical risk exists. Some industries will of course carry more risk areas than others, and some roles within a single company may carry more risk than others. It follows then that methods for fulfilling the “all reasonable steps” requirement will vary from employer to employer.

Impact on employers

Along with a risk assessment, the EHRC includes the following in its current 8 step guide to preventing sexual harassment at work. It should be noted that this guidance is likely to be updated in line with the October 2026 changes:

• a policy expressing zero tolerance towards harassment
• staff engagement
• taking steps to reduce risk
• reporting
• training
• acting immediately to resolve a complaint
• dealing with harassment by third parties
• monitoring and evaluation actions

Compliance with the duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment will need to be part of the continuous, on-going governance of the organisation rather than a one-off HR exercise.

A useful starting checklist is to review the organisation’s harassment policy, update the risk assessment, confirm that reporting routes are clear, refresh training for staff and managers, address risks involving customers and other third parties, and keep records of the decisions and actions taken. Responsibility for monitoring these measures should be assigned so that prevention remains an ongoing part of organisational governance.

Takeaway

The October 2026 reforms move employers from taking some reasonable precautions to demonstrating that they have taken all reasonable steps available to prevent harassment. Employers should act now to assess risks, strengthen controls, train/re-train staff and managers, improve reporting systems and keep evidence of what has been done.

 

This article originated from CIPD HR-Inform.  

URL:https://app.croneri.co.uk/feature-articles/reforms-strengthen-harassment-protections-almost-here