Is Your Organisation Prepared for UK Sexual Harassment Law Changes in 2026?
Sexual harassment at work is not always loud, obvious, or easy to name. It can be a repeated joke, a private message after hours, an unwanted comment about someone’s body, or pressure to “take a compliment” when they have made it clear they are uncomfortable.
For employers in the UK, this matters even more because the legal position is changing. From 30 October 2026, employers are expected to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. That wording matters. It raises the bar from reacting to complaints after harm has happened to proving that prevention is built into the way the organisation works.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Employment law can be fact-specific, so employers should get professional guidance on their own policies, risks, and duties.
What is changing for employers in 2026
UK employers already have duties under equality law. Sexual harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010, and workers have long been able to bring claims where they have experienced harassment related to sex, unwanted sexual conduct, or less favourable treatment after rejecting or submitting to sexual conduct.
Recent reforms have moved the focus further towards prevention. Since October 2024, employers have had a proactive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers. The expected 2026 position, as described in current reform plans, goes further by requiring all reasonable steps.
That single word, “all”, is likely to make a real difference.
It suggests that employers will need to show more than a policy saved in a shared folder. They may need evidence that they have looked at actual workplace risks, trained people properly, acted on warning signs, and reviewed what is and is not working.
This is where many organisations could be exposed. A business may believe it is low risk because there have been no formal complaints. That can be misleading. People often do not report sexual harassment because they fear being blamed, ignored, labelled as difficult, or damaging their career.
A clean complaints record does not always mean a safe culture. Sometimes it means people do not trust the process.
Sexual harassment is often misunderstood
Many employers and managers still think of sexual harassment only in extreme terms. They picture physical contact, explicit propositions, or repeated advances. Those examples can be sexual harassment, but the legal and practical reality is wider.
Sexual harassment can include unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that violates someone’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment.
That can happen face to face, online, by message, at a work social event, during travel, or through third parties connected to work.
Examples may include:
Sexual jokes or comments, even if the person saying them claims they are “just banter”
Unwanted comments about someone’s body, clothing, sex life, or relationship status
Repeated requests for dates after someone has said no
Sending sexual images, memes, or messages
Displaying sexualised material in a shared workspace or work-related chat
Unwanted touching, hugging, massaging, or standing too close
Comments about pregnancy, fertility, or gendered expectations in a sexual context
Suggestive remarks from clients, customers, suppliers, or contractors
Retaliation after someone rejects sexual attention
Spreading sexual rumours about a colleague
One common misunderstanding is that the behaviour must be intended to offend. In many workplace cases, intention is not the key issue. The impact on the person experiencing the conduct matters, along with whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect.
Another misunderstanding is that harassment must happen repeatedly. A single serious incident can be enough.
A third is that it only happens between senior and junior staff. Power can make harassment worse, but it is not limited to managers. It can happen between peers, from junior staff towards senior staff, or from customers and clients towards employees.
Why “banter” is a risky defence
Workplace humour can build connection, but it can also hide poor conduct. The word “banter” is often used after someone raises a concern, as if labelling a comment as a joke makes it harmless.
It does not.
If a comment is sexual, unwanted, and creates humiliation or discomfort, the fact that someone else found it funny is not a defence. Nor is the fact that the same type of comment has been tolerated before.
This is where culture becomes important. If a team has normalised remarks about people’s appearance, sex lives, or bodies, new starters may feel they have to laugh along to fit in. Others may stay silent because they do not want conflict.
Silence should not be mistaken for consent.
Managers need to understand this. They set the tone in small moments. If a supervisor laughs at a sexual joke, ignores a complaint, or tells someone to “lighten up”, that response can make the organisation’s position worse.
A safer approach is simple and consistent:
Stop inappropriate comments early
Avoid turning concerns into debates about whether someone is “too sensitive”
Focus on behaviour, not personal labels
Keep records of concerns and action taken
Make it clear that dignity at work applies at all levels
What “all reasonable steps” could mean in practice
The phrase “all reasonable steps” does not mean every employer must do exactly the same thing. What is reasonable for a large hospitality group will differ from what is reasonable for a small charity, a care provider, a construction firm, or a professional services business.
The principle is the same. Employers should identify risk and take practical steps to reduce it.
Those steps may include the following.
Carry out a real risk assessment
A sexual harassment risk assessment should look at how, where, and when problems could arise. It should not be a generic template that no one reads.
Risk factors may include:
Lone working
Late shifts
Alcohol at work events
Customer-facing roles
Power imbalance between managers and junior staff
Informal messaging groups
Travel, overnight stays, or conferences
Poorly supervised teams
Previous complaints or rumours
High staff turnover
Dependence on tips, commission, or client approval
A good risk assessment asks uncomfortable but useful questions. Where could someone be isolated? Who has power over shifts, pay, promotion, or references? Are managers trained to respond properly? Do workers know how to report concerns without going through the person causing the problem?
Update policies so they are practical
A policy should not read like a legal textbook. It should explain, in plain English, what sexual harassment is, how to report it, what happens next, and what support is available.
A strong policy usually covers:
Clear examples of unacceptable behaviour
Reporting options, including alternatives if the line manager is involved
Confidentiality and its limits
Protection from victimisation
How complaints will be investigated
Possible disciplinary outcomes
Behaviour at work-related events
Conduct by customers, clients, suppliers, and visitors
Online and out-of-hours work-related communication
The policy should also be easy to find. If a worker cannot locate it when they need it, it is not doing its job.
Train people in a way they remember
Training is often where employers fall short. A one-off slide deck every few years is unlikely to be enough, especially if there is no discussion, no manager training, and no follow-up.
Good training should help people understand real situations. It should cover what sexual harassment can look like, why intent is not the only issue, how to challenge low-level behaviour, and how to report concerns.
Managers need extra training because their response can shape the outcome. They should know how to listen, record information, avoid victim-blaming, and escalate concerns promptly.
Training should also be refreshed. Laws change, teams change, and risks change.
Why policies alone will not make an employer risk free
A policy is useful, but it is not a shield on its own. If an employer has a policy but ignores complaints, fails to train staff, or lets senior people behave badly, the policy may carry little weight.
Tribunals and regulators tend to look at what happened in practice. Did the employer take prevention seriously? Did managers act when they saw warning signs? Were complaints handled fairly? Were workers protected from retaliation?
This is why evidence matters.
This is not about creating paperwork for its own sake. It is about showing that prevention is active, current, and real.
Third-party harassment should not be ignored
Some of the highest-risk situations involve people outside the organisation. A customer makes sexual comments to a server. A client repeatedly messages a consultant late at night. A contractor behaves inappropriately towards a receptionist. A patient touches a care worker without consent.
Employers should not treat these situations as beyond their control.
They may not be able to control every third party, but they can control how they prepare, respond, and protect workers. That could include warning clients, banning customers, changing staffing arrangements, adding reporting routes, or making clear in contracts that harassment will not be tolerated.
Workers need to know that the organisation will back them, not simply ask them to endure poor behaviour because the person is a customer or fee payer.
Professional help can reduce risk
Sexual harassment prevention sits at the point where law, HR, culture, and management practice meet. That makes it easy to underestimate.
A professional review can help employers spot gaps they may miss internally. This might include checking policies, reviewing reporting routes, assessing training needs, and helping managers understand how to respond to concerns fairly.
Support from experienced HR and employment law professionals can also help employers prepare evidence that they have acted sensibly and consistently.
If your organisation is unsure where it stands, speak to qualified specialists. The Peoples Consult can help employers review their current approach, strengthen policies and training, and prepare for the 2026 changes with greater confidence.
The aim should not be to look compliant on paper. The aim should be to reduce harm, protect workers, and place the organisation in the strongest possible position if challenged.
The takeaway for employers
The change expected from 30 October 2026 is a clear warning to employers: prevention must be active, practical, and documented.
Sexual harassment is often misunderstood because it does not always look like the most extreme examples. It can be hidden in jokes, messages, social events, customer interactions, and power imbalances. That is why policies, training, reporting routes, risk assessments, and manager behaviour all matter.
Employers that wait for complaints are already behind. The safer course is to review risks now, train people properly, update policies, and get expert support where needed.
Being prepared is not just about avoiding claims. It is about creating a workplace where people know the standards, trust the process, and feel safe enough to speak up.
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