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EHRC issues updated guidance on new harassment laws

05 November 2026

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7 min read

The UK’s equality watchdog has issued guidance on employers’ strengthened duties to prevent harassment in Great Britain.

Since 30 October, employers must take “all” reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff. They are also directly liable for harassment of any kind by third parties unless they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. These changes demand a focus on culture and conduct beyond tick-box compliance.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published revised technical guidance. Although not legally binding, it is likely to be a key source for employment tribunals assessing compliance.

There is a lot to take on board in the guidance, but here are the highlights.

Workplace culture and leadership are key

The guidance emphasises workplace culture and the role of senior leaders, middle managers and supervisors in preventing harassment. Culture reflects both positive behaviours and negative conduct that is tolerated. The various examples explored in the updated guidance emphasise the role that leaders need to play in understanding organisational culture, supporting and advancing inclusion initiatives, modelling organisational values and engaging with staff networks where appropriate. The guidance specifically recommends behaviour-based training for leaders and managers.

This echoes our view that inclusive workplaces are less likely to suffer ingrained harassment. The increased focus on culture and senior accountability emphasises that harassment prevention needs to be on the boardroom agenda.

Review preventative steps, keep records and analyse them

The duty to prevent sexual harassment is continuing and anticipatory. Employers must regularly review measures for effectiveness and take further action where necessary. The guidance encourages:

a data-led approach, using centralised complaint registers and anonymised staff surveys;
monitoring informal complaints for patterns (while respecting individuals’ wishes not to act where appropriate);
good record keeping, including regularly reviewing records of preventative steps, complaints and outcomes; and
annual reviews as standard, a message reinforced throughout the revised guidance.

Harassment training needs to evolve

Effective staff training remains a crucial step for organisations, and the revised guidance has more to say about it. It recommends that organisational training should address the underlying causes of harassment. Where knowledge is lacking, it might focus on the law and employer policies; where resistance to change is the problem, training might focus more on behaviour and interpersonal relationships. Greater emphasis on bystander training also highlights the importance of allyship.

Our training team helps clients to optimise existing harassment prevention programmes to organisational risks and assess their impact, so please get in touch if you would like their help. Alongside the training specifically recommended by the guidance, we are receiving more requests to focus on managers’ practical skills in handling concerns empathically and sensitively.

Additional steps depend on context

The guidance offers few specific additional steps to reflect the shift from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. Instead, it makes two general points:

The test is objective: what matters is what an employment tribunal considers to be all reasonable steps, not the employer’s or employee’s view.
If there are other reasonable steps that an employer “could” have taken, but it decides not to, “then it will likely fail to comply with the preventative duty.”

The first point adds little practical guidance. The second arguably risks discouraging open discussion of possible measures and encouraging discussions under legal privilege.

The updated worked examples are more helpful. The updates focus on third-party harassment and senior leadership accountability:

Construction (large firm): example updated to include the recommendation of obtaining contractual commitments from clients and contractors and involving senior leaders.
Hospital: training should cover targeted bystander intervention and early intervention.
Theatre company: tell audiences that those who harass staff may be asked to leave and repeat offenders barred.

Take all reasonable measures against third-party harassment

Reassuringly, the guidance says employers need not plan for extremely unlikely situations or eliminate all third-party harassment. They must take all steps that are reasonable.

The guidance confirms that employers should carry out a risk assessment to assess risks and how to mitigate them. In practice, we are generally seeing employers extending existing sexual harassment risk assessments to cover third-party harassment more broadly rather than creating a fresh risk assessment.

The guidance offers a list of potential measures including:

workplace signs, contractual terms and published policies stating that harassment is unlawful and abuse of staff will not be tolerated;
removing third parties who sexually harass staff from premises, where practicable;
avoiding lone working and isolated areas;
effective video surveillance or security personnel;
practical training on recognising harassment, responding safely, de-escalating behaviour and leaving abusive interactions;
ways to call for support or withdraw safely, such as a secure room, emergency telephone or intercom, plus adequate lighting and security outside, including car parks;
encouraging incident reporting and explaining how to report; and
training managers to address third-party harassment and support staff.

Regulate inappropriate behaviour, not controversial views

The guidance addresses customers expressing opinions that staff may find offensive. This tackles a long-standing debate over what employers are supposed to do in this situation. The key worked example involves bar customers discussing immigration policy, then heckling a staff member about whether they are working illegally. To protect the staff member, the guidance says that the recommended steps include:

visible managers during busy periods;
practical training on handling third-party harassment;
a staff mobile phone to call colleagues or police for assistance; and
logging incidents to identify patterns and take action.

However, the guidance says it would not be reasonable to prohibit all customer conversations about controversial topics. Customers should be permitted to discuss such topics, provided they do not offend or harass staff, for example by directing racist or sexist comments at others.

Agree arrangements and contractual protections with third parties

The guidance makes several recommendations on this issue in different places, across the worked examples and main body of the guidance. Bringing those together, the key recommendations are as follows:

contractual terms requiring compliance with the employer’s anti-harassment policies and evidence of compliance;
terms requiring investigation of allegations and co-operation with employer investigations;
mutual agreement to maintain anti-harassment policies;
assurances or warranties that appropriate training has taken place;
sharing policies;
employers investigating harassment themselves where possible, rather than leaving it to the third party; and
considering further action, such as requesting that an individual no longer works on the contract.

What is reasonable remains context-specific.

Employers should review their contracts, bearing in mind that suppliers are likely to ask for mutual terms.

Update policies where needed

Employers should check policies reflect the stronger obligations. The new guidance largely repeats what the original guidance said about anti-harassment policies but there are a few additional recommendations. These are that policies should:

cover agency workers;
address third-party harassment, including its unlawfulness, potential employer liability and the employer’s refusal to tolerate it; and
explain when sexual harassment complaints may amount to whistleblowing and refer to the whistleblowing policy.

Consult employees and their representatives

The updated guidance now repeatedly recommends consulting trade unions or employee representatives on harassment prevention, including risk assessments (reflecting wider government policy perhaps). Employers that have not involved staff or representatives should now do so.

Other updates: protected beliefs and AI

The guidance covers harassment generally and includes other updates beyond the two recent legal changes.

Following the Court of Appeal ruling in the Higgs case, the updated guidance addresses workers feeling harassed by colleagues expressing offensive but legally protected beliefs. Employers should consider whether the expression was inappropriate and whether it was objectively reasonable for the worker to feel harassed. Relevant factors include use of offensive or insulting language, views that attack the dignity or identity of a specific worker, abuse of power and repeating views following an objection being raised. Whether comments targeted the complainant or were intended to cause offence is also relevant. Policies should regulate inappropriate conduct, not the holding or expression of particular beliefs or opinions. Helpfully, the guidance acknowledges that employers generally can restrict inappropriate expressions of belief provided this is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, such as protecting the rights of others or the reputation of the employer.

In a sign of the times, the updated guidance now also identifies AI-generated images and videos, including deepfakes, as potential examples of harassment.