From 30 October 2026, UK employers will face a stronger legal duty to prevent sexual harassment. For businesses, the challenge is not simply having the right policies in place. It is knowing where risks exist, making it easier for people to speak up, and demonstrating that concerns are being acted upon.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is not a new problem. What is changing is the level of responsibility placed on employers to prevent it.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 strengthens existing protections under the Equality Act 2010, requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. It also introduces a duty not to permit harassment of employees by third parties, such as customers and clients.
These changes come into force on 30 October 2026. For employers, that means the time to review their approach is now, not after a complaint has been made. Official guidance: Acas
The existing preventative duty came into force in October 2024. Employers have since been expected to anticipate the risk of sexual harassment and take reasonable steps to prevent it.
The new legislation raises the bar.
Moving from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps” signals a stronger expectation that employers will take a comprehensive, proactive approach. A policy sitting on an intranet, an annual training session or a complaints procedure that nobody knows how to use may not be enough.
Employers need to consider the risks specific to their organisation, the working environments in which those risks arise, and whether their preventative measures are genuinely effective.
That means looking beyond formal processes and asking some more difficult questions:
The emphasis is shifting towards prevention that can be evidenced, rather than compliance that exists mainly on paper.
There are three important areas for organisations to address.
Employers will need to assess the risks within their organisation and take the preventative measures that are reasonable in their circumstances.
The appropriate response will depend on factors such as the size of the organisation, the sector it operates in, and the nature of the work employees undertake.
Practical steps may include:
The key is to make prevention part of everyday operations, rather than treating it as a one-off HR exercise.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of a duty not to permit harassment of employees by third parties.
This matters particularly for organisations whose employees interact regularly with the public.
Consider a retail worker subjected to sexual comments by a customer. A hospitality employee repeatedly harassed by a guest. A healthcare worker facing inappropriate behaviour from a patient. Or a frontline employee who witnesses a colleague being targeted but does not know how to report it.
These situations are not always captured by traditional internal reporting systems, especially when incidents are regarded as part of the job or are never formally escalated.
The new duty makes it particularly important for employers to consider how they prevent and respond to third-party harassment, rather than assuming that behaviour originating outside the organisation falls beyond their responsibility.
Employers should establish clear reporting and escalation routes, support affected staff, and consider appropriate action to prevent incidents from recurring.
Even the best policies have limitations if people do not use them.
Employees may stay silent because they fear repercussions, do not want to be seen as making a fuss, are unsure whether what they witnessed constitutes harassment, or believe nothing will change if they report it.
Others may witness inappropriate behaviour without being directly affected themselves.
An effective preventative approach needs to address these barriers. That means making it easy to raise concerns, ensuring people understand their options, and responding in a way that encourages confidence in the process.
Organisations should consider whether they offer more than one reporting route, whether staff understand how to use them, and whether the reporting process works for people who are uncomfortable raising an issue face to face.
Crucially, a lack of formal complaints does not necessarily mean a lack of risk. It may mean that concerns are not reaching the people responsible for addressing them.
There is a practical challenge at the heart of workplace harassment prevention: decision-makers cannot address risks they do not know exist.
Formal complaints are important, but they represent only the concerns that make it through an organisation's reporting process. Everyday observations, early warning signs and incidents that employees choose not to escalate can remain invisible.
A manager might hear an inappropriate comment dismissed as a joke. A member of staff might repeatedly witness a colleague being targeted by the same customer. An employee might feel uncomfortable around a particular individual but be reluctant to make a formal accusation.
Individually, these observations may appear minor or inconclusive. Taken together, they may reveal a pattern that deserves attention.
This is where organisations need to think carefully about the intelligence available to them.
Can they identify recurring issues across different teams, locations or shifts? Can they distinguish isolated reports from emerging patterns? Can they recognise when an apparently isolated incident is part of a wider problem?
The objective is not to encourage speculation or turn colleagues into investigators. It is to ensure that genuine concerns can be raised safely, assessed fairly and directed to the right people before problems escalate.
A strong reporting culture is built on trust.
People need to know what they can report, how to report it, who will see the information and what happens next. They also need confidence that concerns will be handled sensitively, that confidentiality will be respected as far as possible, and that retaliation will not be tolerated.
For employers, this means designing reporting processes around the realities of working life.
Frontline employees may not have regular access to a computer or HR team. Temporary staff may be unsure where to turn. Employees working evenings or weekends may not have immediate access to their usual manager. And witnesses may want to flag a concern without feeling they must personally lead a formal complaint.
Accessible reporting routes can help close these gaps, provided they are supported by clear procedures, appropriate training and accountable follow-up.
Technology can support this process by making it easier to capture concerns, organise information and identify recurring themes. However, it cannot replace good judgement, fair investigations or the human responsibility to protect employees.
Collecting reports is only the beginning. Employers need a process for assessing and acting on the information they receive.
A practical approach should connect four stages:
Capture. Make it straightforward for employees and witnesses to raise concerns through appropriate, accessible channels.
Assess. Ensure reports reach trained people who can assess their seriousness, context and urgency without jumping to conclusions.
Identify patterns. Look for recurring concerns involving particular locations, working arrangements, events or third-party interactions, while protecting personal information.
Act and review. Take appropriate action, support affected employees, address underlying risks and check whether interventions are working.
This creates a more complete picture of workplace risk. It also helps organisations move beyond counting complaints towards understanding where preventative measures may need to improve.
Any system used for this purpose must be designed carefully. Reports of sexual harassment can contain highly sensitive personal information, so access controls, data protection, confidentiality, retention and fair treatment must be built into the process. Anonymous reporting may help people come forward, but it should not be presented as a guarantee that every report can be investigated or verified.
At Continual, we believe that important intelligence often begins with an everyday observation that might otherwise go unreported.
Our community intelligence platform helps organisations capture observations and turn them into structured, actionable insight. By combining human vigilance with AI-supported analysis, Continual can help organisations understand what is being reported, recognise emerging patterns and direct information to the appropriate people.
In the context of workplace safety, that approach is relevant to a fundamental challenge: making it easier for concerns to surface and helping organisations see the wider picture.
Continual is not a substitute for a compliant harassment policy, specialist HR advice, formal investigations or appropriate safeguarding procedures. Nor does reporting technology, by itself, demonstrate compliance with the law.
Its potential value lies in supporting a broader preventative approach: helping organisations listen more effectively, spot recurring issues and ensure that information reaches people who can take action.
The starting point is always a reporting process that people trust and a clear commitment to responding appropriately.
With the changes approaching, organisations should consider the following actions:
These steps should be proportionate to the organisation and its risks. Employers should consult the latest guidance from Acas and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and obtain specialist employment-law advice where appropriate.
The new legislation is an important reminder that preventing sexual harassment requires more than a policy, a training module or a response after something has gone wrong.
It requires organisations to understand the environments in which harassment can occur, create conditions in which people feel able to speak up, and take meaningful action when concerns emerge.
For employers, the challenge is not simply to ask whether they have a reporting process. It is to ask whether that process works, whether people trust it, and whether the information it produces leads to better decisions.
Because a safer workplace is not built solely on the incidents an organisation knows about. It is built on how effectively it identifies risks, listens to its people and acts before problems become entrenched.
At Continual, we believe better intelligence can help organisations take that next step: from simply receiving reports to understanding what those reports are telling them.
To experience the power of community vigilance across your stores and sites, schedule a personalised demo now.
We are also available on the details below.
