In October 26, 2 separate legal duties around harassment will change. 1st, the standard for sexual harassment will upgrade from reasonable steps to "all" reasonable steps. This means that, if an employee of yours goes to tribunal over a sexual harassment claim, you need to be able to demonstrate that there were no further steps you could have reasonably taken to prevent the harassment from happening. The 2nd duty is new and will hold employers directly liable for third-party

From October 2026, employers will have two tougher legal duties around harassment. The first: if you're taken to tribunal over a sexual harassment claim, you need to be able to show that there were genuinely no further steps you could reasonably have taken to prevent it from happening. On top of that, employers will also be liable for third-party harassment. This means that you also need to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment by clients, customers, con

From October, if one of your employees makes a harassment claim, a policy alone won't cut it. I know you might think a policy stored away somewhere is enough. But, with the rule changes, you must be able to evidence how you took all reasonable steps to prevent harassment in your workplace.