.png)
All Reasonable Steps: What the Strengthened Sexual Harassment Duty Means for Employers (30th October 2026 update)
Updated: 3 days ago
Since October 2024, employers in the UK have had a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work. From 30th October 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 raises that bar.
Employers must now take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. They can also be held liable when staff are harassed by people they don't employ, such as customers, clients, contractors or visitors.
It’s a small change in wording with a big change in expectation. According to UK Government guidance, from 30 October 2026 employers must take "all reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment and may be liable for harassment carried out by customers, clients and other third parties.
Jump to:
What Has Changed Under the Employment Rights Act 2025?
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 introduced a preventative duty. It moved employers from responding to harassment after it happens to taking steps to stop it happening at all.
Two sections of the Employment Rights Act 2025 come into force on 30 October 2026. Both amend the Equality Act 2010:
"All" reasonable steps (section 20). The 2024 duty asked for "reasonable steps". Employers must now take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees. Doing some of the obvious things is no longer enough.
Harassment by third parties (section 21). Employers can be liable when staff are harassed by people they don't employ, if they haven't taken all reasonable steps to prevent it. This covers harassment related to any protected characteristic, not only sexual harassment.
These build on changes that came into force in April 2026, when reporting sexual harassment became a protected disclosure under whistleblowing law.
The government can also now make regulations setting out specific steps employers should take. None have been published yet, so this may become more detailed over time.
Which Employers Must Comply With the Strengthened Sexual Harassment Duty?
The duty applies to every employer in Great Britain, regardless of size or sector. There is no exemption for small businesses, charities or the public sector.
It protects employees, including those on part-time, fixed-term and temporary contracts.
A third party is anyone who isn't the employer or a fellow employee, such as customers, clients, parents and carers, contractors, suppliers, visiting professionals, and members of the public.
The third-party change matters most for organisations where staff work with the public. That includes:
Health and social care, where staff support patients, residents and their families
Schools and early years settings, where staff deal with parents and visitors
Retail, hospitality and leisure
Local government and customer-facing public services
Professional services, where staff meet clients or work on client sites.
If your people regularly deal with anyone outside your organisation, you now need to plan for harassment from those people too, not just from colleagues.
What Counts as "All Reasonable Steps" to Prevent Sexual Harassment?
The law doesn't give a fixed checklist. Tribunals are likely to look to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) guidance, which sets out eight steps:
Develop an effective anti-harassment policy. Make it clear, specific, and make sure it covers third parties.
Engage your staff. Ask where the risks lie, including from customers, clients and visitors.
Assess and reduce risk. Write a risk assessment for your workplaces and act on what it finds.
Make reporting easy. Offer more than one route, including an anonymous option.
Roll out training. Train all staff, with separate training for managers.
Deal with complaints effectively. Handle them fairly, promptly, and record them well.
Address harassment by third parties. Make sure customers, contractors and visitors know what's expected, and staff know how to respond.
Monitor and evaluate. Review what's working, with data to back it up.
Keep evidence as you go: completion records, policy sign-off, complaint records and reviews. If a claim is made, you'll need to show the steps you took.
What Happens If Employers Fail to Take All Reasonable Steps?
Getting this wrong can be costly, both financially and in reputation:
Higher tribunal awards. If a sexual harassment claim succeeds and the tribunal finds the duty was breached, compensation can rise by up to 25%.
Third-party claims. Employers now face claims for harassment by people they don't employ, related to any protected characteristic.
Regulatory action. The EHRC can investigate employers and take enforcement action, even where no individual has made a claim.
Reputational damage. Harassment cases attract attention and can affect how customers, partners and future employees see you.
Impact on people and performance. Harassment harms wellbeing and leads to absence, low morale and staff leaving.
The stronger wording also makes defences harder. Showing you did "something" is unlikely to be enough.
Why Sexual Harassment Training Is Critical for Compliance
A policy only works if people understand it. Training on that policy can turn it into everyday behaviour.
Good preventative training helps staff recognise what sexual harassment looks like, including less obvious forms such as comments, jokes and online messages. It gives them the confidence to speak up, whether they are being harassed or have seen it happen to someone else. And it shows them exactly how to report a concern in your organisation.
Training is also one of the EHRC's eight steps, with separate training for managers. Managers are often the first person an employee tells, and how they respond can decide whether a concern is resolved or turns into a formal complaint. Role-based training is likely to be one of the first things you're asked to show.
Training gives you evidence, too. Assessments, certificates and completion records show you've taken a clear, measurable step to prevent harassment. To count, training should be kept up to date and repeated regularly, not done once and forgotten.
Need help preparing for the strengthened duty?
flick's CPD-certified sexual harassment training helps employers educate staff, train managers and maintain records of completion.
Sexual Harassment Training for Employees and Managers
At flick learning, we offer role-based training to help you meet the strengthened duty: one course for all staff and one for the people who manage them. Both are accredited by the CPD Certification Service.
Sexual Harassment Awareness Training (Level 2, 19 minutes) is for everyone. It covers what sexual harassment is and the forms it takes, the legal protections for staff, and how to respond, report and make a complaint.
Sexual Harassment Awareness for Managers (Level 3, 38 minutes) is for managers and senior leaders. It covers what the law expects of managers, spotting risk in a team, third-party harassment, handling disclosures, complaints and records, and building a zero-tolerance culture.
To cover harassment related to all protected characteristics, you can also assign staff to take flick’s Preventing Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace course (Level 2, 37 minutes).
Each course ends with an assessment, and learners who reach the 75% pass mark get a certificate. All three of these courses are included in a flick subscription, or can be licensed to host on your own learning management system.
Take The Next Step
The strengthened duty applies from 30th October 2026, and employers now need to demonstrate they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
That means more than having a policy. Employers should be able to evidence training, policy communication, reporting procedures, management capability and ongoing monitoring.
flick helps you put those foundations in place and prove it.
With flick, you can:
Deliver role-specific sexual harassment training to staff and managers
Assign courses by site, role or team, with deadlines
Record course completion and assessment results
Share policies and collect employee sign-off
Automate reminders and refresher training
Produce reports that support compliance and internal audits
Book a 15-minute consultation or call 0203 814 0492 to discuss the right approach for your organisation.
We'll help you identify the training your teams need, implement it quickly, and create a clear audit trail of compliance activity.
Comments