Sexual Harassment

Expected to be in force from October 2026

There has already been a significant change in the law around the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace. From October 2024, employers have been under a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees during the course of their employment. Where the duty is breached, tribunals can uplift an employee's compensation by up to 25% if they bring a successful employment tribunal claim.

At the time, the law was originally drafted to say that employers would be under an obligation to take "all reasonable steps", but that was amended by the House of Lords to "reasonable steps".

The new legislation effectively amends the law back again to put a more onerous duty on employers to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.

Employers will also be liable for harassment by third parties of their employees where they have failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment.

The government will have the power to specify in regulations what will be regarded as the reasonable steps an employer should take.
Those may include:

• Carrying out assessments
• Publishing plans and policies
• Ensuring processes are in place for the reporting of sexual harassment
• Steps relating to handling complaints

The government has made clear that what will be considered "all reasonable steps" will depend on the specific circumstances of the employer, including their size and resources and the sector they operate in.

The whistleblowing law will also be amended to make specifically clear that an employee reporting sexual harassment will be a qualifying disclosure for whistleblowing purposes. This is due to take effect in April 2026. Reporting sexual harassment to an employer may already be a protected disclosure in many cases, but the new law avoids any ambiguity.

The legislation will also bring in a ban on Non Disclosure Agreements covering harassment and discrimination, which includes confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements.