October 2026 will mark a fundamental shift in UK workplace harassment law, significantly raising the stakes for employers and reinforcing a broader move away from reactive complaint handling towards proactive prevention, governance, and risk management.
What is Changing?
Key legal developments in October 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (‘ERA 2025’) are:
- Employers’ duty to prevent workplace sexual harassment will strengthen from taking “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”. As a reminder, this includes taking steps to prevent such behaviour where there is sufficient connection to the employee’s work, so this can include where they are working offsite at social events. This duty also includes taking steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties.
- Employers will be liable for the harassment of their workers by third parties (including, for example: clients, customers and members of the supply chain) where they fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent this. Note that this will relate to all forms of unlawful harassment related to protected characteristics and not solely sexual harassment.
See here for our previous article on this and further information on our hub.
Wider Context
These reforms sit within a wider legal and regulatory trend which is requiring employers to take increasingly proactive steps to reduce the risk of harassment in the workplace. For example:
- Since April 2026, the law now makes it clear that sexual harassment disclosures can amount to whistleblowing and so are protected too under whistleblowing legislation. This means employers cannot use non-disclosure agreements (‘NDAs‘) to stop disclosure of sexual harassment complaints, placing the focus on prevention (see here).
- From September 2026, new rules by the financial regulators focus on non-financial misconduct. These explicitly make clear such conduct can amount to a conduct rule breach and that managers are required to take steps to address such behaviour and embed a healthy culture for people to raise such concerns (see here).
- Added to this, in 2027 it is proposed that employers will no longer be able to use NDAs to prevent disclosure of harassment and discrimination complaints (so not just sexual harassment), except in limited circumstances (see here).
Implications
The risk of harassment issues arising, together with the related reputational, cultural and legal consequences, is not new. What is new is the extent to which these legal and regulatory developments increase employer exposure and raise expectations around prevention, reporting and response.
This means that rather than primarily focusing on addressing harassment or managing risk after harassment has occurred, the focus is increasingly on prevention. This includes fostering a culture where employees are encouraged to speak up and upskilling managers to set the tone and address issues they become aware of or that are raised with them.
Challenges
There are some real challenges for employers including:
- What are all reasonable steps: Employers will need to show they have taken all steps that are reasonable for it to take – these will vary depending on the size, resources and risks of the employer. Unfortunately, the ERA 2025 does not tell us exactly what “all reasonable steps” will mean. We are expecting regulations to specify what reasonable steps an employer must take, but (unhelpfully for employers) we are unlikely to receive these before 2027 – so after the new duty is in force. We do, however, have examples of what steps may be included, which are: carrying out assessments, publishing plans or policies, steps relating to the reporting of sexual harassment and relating to the handling of complaints.
- Less control over third parties: Of course (and the Government guidance accepts) the steps employers can take in respect of third parties are more limited than those they can take in relation to their own employees.
- Reluctance to speak up: Data shows that individuals remain reluctant to report sexual harassment and work-related issues more generally. For example, a previous TUC poll in 2023 showed that 58% of women experienced harassment at work but less than one in three told their employer.
- Role of Managers: A 2025 ACAS report on workplace conflict, which also covered harassment issues, reported that the most common action people took to resolve conflict was a discussion with their own manager (45%) (with 13% raising the issue with HR and 19% taking no action). Managers will need to be upskilled on how to spot issues and respond promptly, sensitively and confidentially.
Practical Priorities
While many employers will already have undertaken initial risk assessments and adopted action plans following the introduction of the October 2024 duty, these upcoming reforms raise the stakes even further. Employers will want to consider taking steps such as:
- Refreshing risk assessments and action plans. Ensuring they cover all steps that are reasonable for them to take to prevent sexual harassment and cover the risk of third-parties harassing their staff on any unlawful ground (e.g. disability, race) and steps you can take to reduce this (such as signs, contractual wording and addressing issues you become aware of).
- Reviewing policies, reporting channels, NDA practices, and investigation procedures: To ensure they are compliant with the whistleblowing changes, are fit for purpose given these changes and ensuring they encourage a speak up culture.
- Delivering practical manager and workforce training: As the first point of contact for many workplace concerns, have your managers been upskilled to identify issues early, respond appropriately, and foster psychologically safe teams?
The strategic message is clear: employers that act early to strengthen prevention, leadership capability and workplace culture will be best positioned to navigate rising legal standards, regulatory scrutiny and workforce expectations.
Training in relation to these matters will take on even greater importance. We support employers through practical legal advice, strategic risk assessments, policy reviews and tailored manager and workforce training designed to help organisations meet these increasing obligations with confidence.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this article, please reach out to your usual Littler contact or for training enquiries please contact Natasha Adom.
