Businesses Urged To Prepare For Tougher Sexual Harassment Prevention Duties

Businesses are being urged to review their sexual harassment prevention measures ahead of today’s (October 30) changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025 which will raise the bar for employers and introduce a new obligation to prevent harassment by third parties.

The existing duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment – in place since October 2024 – is being extended to a duty to take “all reasonable steps”, a noticeably higher bar that puts the emphasis on documented, proactive prevention rather than steps taken after the fact.

Alongside it, a new obligation is being introduced requiring employers to prevent the harassment of their workers by third parties, such as customers, clients or contractors. This means businesses in the hospitality, retail and healthcare sectors will be particularly affected – but also any business with contractors or suppliers on site since “third party” also covers contractors, clients and visitors.
The government has also taken the power to set out evidence-based steps employers should take to prevent sexual harassment, though its own fact sheet confirms these regulations won’t complement the duty until 2027/28. The core “all reasonable steps” obligation is what employers need to meet from 30 October.

Gill McAteer, Director of Employment Law at HR, Employment Law and Health & Safety services provider Citation, said: “Reasonable steps and all reasonable steps sound similar, but they’re judged very differently by a tribunal.

“All reasonable steps means being able to show you looked at every option that was open to you, not just the ones you happened to already have in place. Add third-party harassment into the mix, and any business with customer-facing staff needs to think about protection that goes beyond internal HR policy.”

Citation is advising employers to have the following in place ahead of the 30th:

1. Revisit your sexual harassment risk assessment and ask whether it reflects “all” reasonable steps, not just the steps already in place.

If you did a risk assessment back in 2024 when the “reasonable steps” duty came in, it was built to meet a lower bar. “All reasonable steps” forces businesses to ask a harder question – not just “what have we done?” but “what else could we have done, and why didn’t we?” Go back through it and check whether it still reflects every reasonable option open to your business, not just the ones that were convenient or already budgeted for.

2. Extend anti-harassment policies and training to cover harassment by customers, clients and other third parties, not just colleagues.

Most anti-harassment policies are written with colleague-on-colleague conduct in mind. From 30 October, you’re also on the hook for harassment your staff experience from people outside the business, like customers, clients, contractors, and visitors. That means your policy needs to name third parties explicitly, your training needs to cover how staff should report incidents involving a customer or client (not just a colleague), and your managers need a clear process for acting on it.

3. Extend anti-harassment policies and training to cover harassment by customers, clients and other third parties, not just colleagues.

From 30 October, you’re also liable for harassment your staff face from people outside the business. Name third parties explicitly in your policy, train staff to report incidents involving a customer or client, and give managers a clear process for acting on it.

For further guidance on the Employment Rights Act changes and what they mean for your business, visit www.citation.co.uk/employment-rights-act-hub