Preventing Harassment At Work Under The Employment Rights Act 2025

In April 2026, the Government explicitly included sexual harassment within whistleblowing law. Now, disclosures that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur can more clearly qualify for protection. This change is part of a wider shift towards stronger preventative obligations on employers, with further significant changes expected on 30 October 2026.

The current position: Equality Act 2010 protections and the preventative duty

Sexual harassment and other forms of harassment are primarily addressed through the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010). In addition to individuals bringing claims for harassment itself, the law now places a specific preventative duty on employers in relation to sexual harassment.

Since 26 October 2024, employers have been under a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment.

Where a tribunal finds that sexual harassment has taken place and awards compensation, it may increase compensation by up to 25 per cent if the employer breached the preventative duty. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) can also use its enforcement powers to investigate and take action.

For employers, this means prevention work is not only a culture and wellbeing issue but is also directly linked to litigation risk and compensation exposure.

What will change under the Employment Rights Act 2025?

From 30 October 2026 (subject to commencement regulations), the ERA 2025 is expected to amend the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010) so that employers must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of employees.

In other words, employers will be expected to do everything that is reasonably practicable in their circumstances to stop sexual harassment before it occurs. At present, the law requires ‘reasonable steps’. The change from this to ‘all reasonable steps’ is, therefore, significant.

What is ‘reasonable’ will still be fact sensitive. The Government factsheet indicates tribunals will take account of factors such as an employer’s size, sector, working environment and resources. However, employers should expect closer scrutiny of their prevention measures and a greater need to evidence what they have done and why.

Key takeaway: The preventative duty will be strengthened from ‘reasonable steps’ to ‘all reasonable steps’

Third-party harassment: explicit employer liability returns

The 30th of October 2026 is also expected to see a major shift in how the law treats harassment by third parties, including:

• customers
• clients
• service users
• patients
• contractors
• visitors
• members of the public

The ERA 2025 will amend the EA 2010 to introduce explicit protection against third-party harassment across all relevant protected characteristics (including age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation).

In broad terms, an employer will be treated as having ‘permitted’ third-party harassment where: (1) the third party harasses the worker in the course of employment; and (2) the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that harassment in the course of employment.

This is a particularly challenging reform because employers inevitably have less control over third parties than over employees.

The Government factsheet acknowledges this and indicates tribunals should take into account the more limited steps realistically available in third-party settings. Even so, employers in sectors with a high-level of third-party contact, such as hospitality, retail and healthcare, should assume that third-party risk management will become a core element of harassment prevention compliance.

Prevention steps that are to be regarded as reasonable

The ERA 2025 also introduces a new power for the Government to make regulations specifying steps that are to be regarded as ‘reasonable’ for the purpose of meeting the duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

It’s expected that the power will be available from 30 October 2026, with the detailed regulations expected to follow in 2027 after consultation.

Potential areas that may be specified in regulations include (among others): carrying out risk assessments, publishing plans or policies, steps relating to reporting sexual harassment, and steps relating to handling complaints. In the meantime, employers should continue to use existing EHRC resources (including its technical guidance and eight-step guide) as a benchmark for what ‘all reasonable steps’ may look like in practice.

How can employers evidence ‘all reasonable steps’?

A practical way to prepare is to work through the following areas and retain clear evidence of decisions, actions and follow-up.

• Assess risk and create action plans (including third-party contact points): identify where, when and how harassment risks arise (events, travel, lone working, online platforms, client sites, night shifts, patient/customer interactions) and who is most exposed. Create action plans to mitigate identified risks.
• Policy framework: build in time closer to October 2026 to ensure anti-harassment and dignity-at-work policies are up to date, easy to follow, and reflect the shift to ‘all reasonable steps’.
• Multiple reporting routes: provide more than one way to raise concerns (line management, HR, anonymous/independent channels where appropriate) and ensure workers know how to use them.
• Training and refreshers: deliver role-tailored training for all staff, with enhanced training for managers, HR, investigators and customer-facing teams.
• Investigation capability: review investigation processes, templates, timescales and decision-making governance. Ensure investigators are trained and impartial, and that outcomes are consistently recorded.
• Third-party controls: put in place measures proportionate to your environment (visible behavioural standards, customer signage, contract clauses with suppliers/contractors, escalation routes, banning/removing offenders, security support, incident reporting for frontline teams).
• Culture and leadership: reinforce standards through senior messaging, manager accountability and performance expectations; avoid over-reliance on written policies without lived practice.
• Monitoring, learning and improvement: track themes from complaints, exit data, absence and engagement metrics; audit whether measures are working and make adjustments accordingly.
• Record-keeping: retain evidence of steps taken (risk assessments, training attendance, policy rollouts, communications, actions taken after incidents). This can be critical if a tribunal later scrutinises what was done and when.

Restrictions on NDAs covering harassment and discrimination

Alongside the prevention reforms, the ERA 2025 includes a measure aimed at preventing the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence workers about harassment and discrimination.

The new provisions are designed to make NDA terms (including those within contracts of employment and settlement agreements) void to the extent they prevent a worker from speaking out about relevant harassment or discrimination, or about the employer’s response to it (including the handling of allegations).

The Government acknowledges that workers may sometimes want confidentiality and that it may be appropriate for employers to want confidentiality in some circumstances. The Government is therefore consulting on the proposed criteria for an ‘excepted agreement’.

These NDA reforms are expected to be brought into force  during 2027 via secondary legislation following consultation, and they are not intended to apply retrospectively to existing agreements.These NDA reforms are expected to be brought into force via secondary legislation following consultation, and they are not intended to apply retrospectively to existing agreements. The consultation is due to close on 8 July 2026, with the measure coming into effect during 2027.

Summary: the essentials for employers

• 30 October 2026 is the key date: expect the preventative duty for sexual harassment to shift to ‘all reasonable steps’, and for explicit employer liability for third-party harassment across relevant protected characteristics to be introduced.
• Evidence will matter: update prevention measures now and keep records so you can demonstrate what you did, when, and why.
• Third-party risk is no longer a peripheral issue: customer/client-facing environments should be reviewed urgently.
• More detail is coming: regulations specifying steps that will be treated as ‘reasonable’ are expected in 2027, so plans should be robust but adaptable.
• Keep an eye on NDA reform: restrictions on NDAs relating to harassment/discrimination are developing via consultation and secondary legislation and are expected to come into effect in 2027.

Timeline: key dates