Employers across Great Britain must now take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work, under stronger legal protections that also introduce liability for harassment by customers, clients, and other third parties.
The changes, which took effect on 30 October under the Employment Rights Act 2025, strengthen the preventive duty introduced in October 2024 and extend employers’ responsibilities beyond misconduct involving their own employees.
The legislation amends the Equality Act 2010, requiring employers to take all steps that are reasonable in their circumstances to prevent sexual harassment. Previously, the statutory preventive duty referred to taking reasonable steps, without the additional requirement that all reasonable measures be considered.
Employers must also avoid permitting third parties to harass employees during their work. Liability arises where the harassment occurs and the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
The new third-party protection covers sexual harassment and harassment connected to protected characteristics under the Equality Act, subject to the legislation’s specified exclusions. It therefore extends beyond the preventive sexual harassment duty to address other forms of discriminatory conduct by people outside an organisation’s workforce.
The changes are particularly relevant to retail, hospitality, healthcare, transport, and professional services businesses, where employees regularly interact with customers, patients, contractors, or other external parties.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has updated its technical guidance and practical advice, encouraging employers to assess where harassment is most likely to occur and implement preventive arrangements suited to their working environments.
Those arrangements may include staff training, clear reporting procedures, adjustments to customer-facing work, additional supervision, and procedures for responding to complaints involving visitors or service users.
Risk assessments should account for circumstances beyond an employer’s main premises. Business travel, client meetings, external training, company social events, and work undertaken alone can expose employees to harassment in the course of their employment.
Employers must consider the particular risks associated with their operations. In a hospitality business, that could involve procedures for dealing with abusive customers. In a professional services organisation, measures may be required to protect employees working at client premises or attending external business events.
Training employees to report incidents is one element of prevention, alongside ensuring managers have the authority and practical arrangements needed to respond. A policy that exists on paper may have limited effect where staff cannot obtain support or where complaints are not investigated.
The strengthened duty places greater emphasis on assessing the measures reasonably available to an employer. Their adequacy will depend on factors including the organisation’s size, resources, working environment, and the nature of the risks identified.
Where harassment involves a customer or contractor, an employer may need to consider how its commercial relationships are managed. That could include restricting access to premises, changing working arrangements, or addressing inappropriate behaviour through the relevant contractual relationship.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission can enforce the preventive sexual harassment duty, while qualifying third-party harassment can also give rise to employment tribunal proceedings.
The new rules extend an employer’s legal responsibilities before incidents occur and strengthen the remedies available where reasonable prevention has failed. Businesses must now assess both the conduct of their own workforce and the risks created by people with whom their employees interact.
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