In October 2024, employers became subject to a new duty to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. This new duty shifted the focus from a historically reactive approach to responding to instances of sexual harassment in the workplace, to a proactive approach to identify risks and take steps to mitigate them. 

One year on from the now not-so-new duty coming into force, what should employers be doing and what further changes to the law in this area are yet to come? 

You can read more about this duty, when it came into force, the legal framework surrounding it in our previous blog here. 

One year on

Following the duty coming into force, many employers took steps to comply with its requirements in accordance with the EHRC’s technical guidance and its eight-step guide. Whilst the guidance is clear that whether an employer has taken reasonable steps is an objective test, and what is reasonable will vary from employer to employer considering factors such as the organisation’s size and resources, many employers took similar steps, from carrying out risk assessments, to producing action plans and rolling out workforce training.

However, employers would be remiss to think these efforts were ‘one-and-done’. Compliance with this duty is not static; employers must ensure that they continually review the risks present in their business and consider the steps that they are taking to comply with the duty.

The EHRC guidance states that employers should (emphasis added) “review policies, procedures and training regularly. It is important to seek input from workers or their representatives, such as staff networks or trade unions, to consider whether any changes are needed. These changes should then be implemented, where appropriate.

…You should also consider whether there have been any changes in the workplace or workforce that mean there are further steps that would now be reasonable for you to take.”

We are now at the one-year anniversary of the new duty, and it is a timely reminder for employers to consider whether they should update and renew their risk assessments and action plans. In practice, the duty requires employers to identify risks within the workplace, as well as any other places where the worker is working, such as external meetings or conferences, and even whilst working from home. It is, therefore, important that ways of working are kept under review to ensure compliance as staff roles evolve, locations change, and staff exposure to third parties varies.

Employers should also be routinely considering, and documenting, whether policies need to be updated. Whilst their anti-harassment policy is an obvious place to start, employers may also consider going wider in their review and update other policies such as social media use guidelines, disciplinary policies, and broader standards of conduct and behaviours. 

Continuous training is also key. Whilst many employers rolled out wider workforce training in response to the new duty coming into force, employers should regularly consider whether this training should be refreshed and/or tailored for different audiences and levels of seniority. 

As we advised last October, employers should seek to avoid seeing compliance with this duty as a checkbox exercise and see this as an essential part of ongoing risk management and governance and to cultivate a respectful workplace culture. 

Looking forward

As employers make continued efforts to comply with the duty, they should also look ahead to incorporate steps to meet further change on the way.  

The Employment Rights Bill – still progressing through parliament and (as at the time of writing) which is expected to receive Royal Assent in the coming weeks – will make a number of changes to workplace harassment laws, including: 

• Strengthening the duty to prevent sexual harassment by increasing the not-so-new duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ – currently planned to come into force in October 2026. The difference from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps” may seem like a nuanced technical change for lawyers to argue over, but it has the potential to be significant for employers. “All reasonable steps” suggests a much higher bar for employers. If challenged by a tribunal, an employer would need to demonstrate that there were genuinely no further steps it could reasonably have taken to prevent the sexual harassment from happening. 
• Introducing employer liability for third party harassment – another measure designed to place greater responsibility on employers to proactively take action to prevent the behaviour from happening and set to come into effect in October 2026. This liability would be for harassment relating to all of the protected characteristics – not only sexual harassment.
• Introducing sexual harassment as a new category of protected disclosure for the purposes of whistleblowing laws. Whilst this change is expected to take effect sooner, in April 2026, arguably it is less significant, as it does not necessarily represent a substantial shift from the current law, given the courts have already made clear that disclosures about sexual harassment could be protected under whistleblowing laws. Read more about this proposal here.
• Banning confidentiality clauses in relation to harassment and discrimination. This was introduced to the Employment Rights Bill as a late-stage amendment and has received mixed reactions from commentators. The government will be consulting on this, potentially later this year, and it is a key area for employers to watch. 

In light of the above, action from employers now is not only required under the current duty but will help employers to prepare for stricter rules to come.

If you have any queries on this topic or would like to understand how we can support your business in this area, please get in touch.