Prepare for increased harassment protections

The Employment Rights Act 2025 brings new reforms to harassment prevention in October. But according to Acas, 41% of employers are completely unaware of these changes, let alone what they’ll mean for policies, training and risk assessments.  

How are the harassment rules changing?  

The old standard is that employers must take reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment. The new rules significantly raise the legal threshold for employers trying to prevent workplace sexual harassment. 

From 30th October, you need to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of your employees.   

Reacting to a complaint isn’t enough. You'll need to show you've anticipated all reasonable risks of sexual harassment and taken steps to stop it happening at all.  

From 30th October, you also have to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment by third parties like customers or contractors. This doesn’t just apply to sexual harassment. Third party harassment rules relate to any protected characteristic, including race, religion, age, disability and sexual orientation.  

So, as well as protecting your workforce, you also need to think about everyone they’re going to encounter as part of their job.  

What's the risk? 

The average cost to businesses of a sexual harassment tribunal claim is between £27,000 and £45,000. There’s also the risk of reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny, especially in light of new whistleblowing protections.  

Sexual harassment reports are now protected  

This change has already happened. In April, sexual harassment complaints changed under the Employment Rights Act. A report of sexual harassment is now a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation.   

So, employees will be protected from unfair dismissal and protections apply to past, current and anticipated events.  

It’s a higher bar than ever before.  

What do you need to do?  

You need to understand your duties, communicate them to your staff and third parties and keep proof you’ve done so. Here are the actions you need to take:  

Review, update and circulate existing policies and procedures: Show you’re going to take complaints seriously and act promptly. Your sexual harassment policy should outline the rules and procedures and ensure everyone knows how concerns will be managed.  

Create a speak-up culture: In light of the new whistleblowing rules, you need to provide safe and accessible reporting channels, respond fairly and consistently and show you’re protecting individuals from retaliation. 

Provide and evidence meaningful training: You need to make sure your staff are formally trained about preventing sexual harassment. BrightHR e-learning courses are easy to access for your employees, and you can remind them to complete their training and create reports to show compliance.  

Assess and manage the risks of harassment: Risk assessments aren’t just for slips, trips and falls.  

How BrightHR can help  

• You can access a sexual harassment policy in our document library of 400+ HR documents.  

• Get a prevention of sexual harassment checklist from BrightHR and promote a respectful workplace.   

• Want to try it out? Take a look at our e-learning course on understanding sexual harassment from BrightHR, for you and your staff.  

• If you’re unsure about procedures, get 24/7 advice from the UK-based BrightHR advice team.   

For a full round up of all of the changes, watch a recording of our August 2026 webcast ‘Navigating Sexual & Third Party Harassment as a Business Owner’.