The new tax year started last week, but few people pause to ask why it starts on 6 April, a date that seems, at first glance, arbitrary. It isn't.

In 1752, the country switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. The result? 

Eleven days vanished. 

The Treasury, unwilling to lose these eleven days of revenue, shifted the start of the tax year from 25 March, which was then the official beginning of the new year, to 5 April. A further one-day adjustment in 1800 nudged it to 6 April, where it has remained ever since.

In effect, time isn't always what it seems.

And doubtless time will seem to vanish again between now and October 2026, when new duties under the Employment Rights Act take effect: changes which will affect the behaviour of non-employees too.

The clock is running. Businesses need to act now.

Extension of the duty to prevent sexual harassment to any harassment

As we note in our 2026 Commercial, Technology & Regulatory Handbook:

As part of the Employment Rights Act, the government plans to tighten workplace harassment protections that apply to employers across Great Britain, addressing conduct by third parties such as clients, customers, contractors and suppliers.

The road map remains on track for October 2026. 

From that date, employers become directly liable for any harassment committed not just by colleagues, but by people outside the organisation (clients, customers, contractors, suppliers) unless they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.

What you need to do now

Commercial agreements should be updated now. Waiting until the provisions come into force means scrambling to retrofit obligations into live contracts, which is rarely a comfortable exercise.

And new contracts should take into account the obligations under the Act.

We'd recommend treating these next few months the way the Treasury treated those lost eleven days: account for every one of them. 

In practical terms, this means reviewing your existing agreements to ensure they contain appropriate anti-harassment provisions that bind third parties. Relevant agreements should include references to codes of conduct, express obligations to comply with anti-harassment policies, and meaningful consequences for breach. It's also worth considering whether your contracts require the counterparty to provide relevant training to its own staff and to cooperate with any investigation into allegations of harassment. 

As we've mentioned, employers will have a legal duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment (not just sexual harassment) in the workplace. What counts as "all reasonable steps" can vary by sector and size of business, so it is crucial to understand what this means for your organisation. 

For more information on the duty to prevent workplace harassment and how we can help your business, see here. And do get in touch with a member of the team if you need any help on this.