The phased timetable of implementation for the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) means that we are currently amidst some of the most radical and transformative changes to the employment law landscape in the United Kingdom, seen in a generation.

The ERA 2025 is crucially reforming liability and prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, previously, employers have been required to take “reasonable steps” to protect their employees from sexual harassment.

From April 2026, sexual harassment is now expressly defined as a qualifying disclosure for the purposes of protection for whistleblowers and now further changes are on the horizon, making provisions around the prevention of sexual harassment tougher.

Here’s what employers need to know to be prepared and get ahead.

October 2026

All Reasonable Steps

From October 2026, employers must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. This is a much higher and tighter threshold than the previous “reasonable steps” obligation. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) provides an 8-step guidance on measures employers can adopt to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, including:

1. Developing a robust anti-harassment policy – communicating a robust policy to workers and senior staff.

2. Engaging your staff – being proactively aware of what is happening in the workplace and any warning signs, by engaging with staff through 1-2-1s, surveys and exit interviews.

3. Undertaking regular risk assessments – identify where sexual harassment may occur and the steps that will be taken to prevent it.

4. Reporting – adopting a system to allow workers to raise and report any issues.

5. Training – this should cover what sexual harassment in the workplace looks like, what to do if they experience it, and how to handle any complaints of harassment.

6. Resolving a harassment complaint – acting immediately and respecting confidentiality.

7. Third parties – harassment by a third party, such as a customer, client, patient, or supplier, should be treated just as seriously as that by a colleague.

8. Monitoring and Evaluation – regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the steps you put in place to prevent sexual harassment in your workplace.

The EHRC has not published any further or amended guidance for employers, so it is not wholly clear what the extension to include “all” reasonable steps adds. However, the government intends to introduce a new set of regulations setting out the steps that are to be regarded as reasonable, although these are not due to come into effect until 2027 (no date has been specified). The ERA 2025 notes that these regulations will cover:

· Carrying out assessments of a specified description.

· Publishing plans or policies of a specified description.

· Steps relating to the reporting of sexual harassment.

· Steps relating to the handling of complaints.

The remedies for non-compliance with the duty to prevent sexual harassment remain unchanged, despite the changes we are expected to see in October. Employees will not be able to bring a standalone tribunal claim for an employer’s breach of the duty to take all reasonable steps – however, a 25% uplift to compensation will be awarded in a successful sexual harassment claim where the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Third-Party Liability

The October changes will extend to render employers liable for the harassment of their workers by third parties. For the purposes of the ERA 2025, a ‘third party’ is someone who is not the employer, or one of its employees, and includes customers, clients and contractors.

An employer will be liable if:

· A third party harasses an employee in the course of their employment; and

· The employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing the employee in the course of their employment.

It is important to note, however, that this liability is not exclusive to sexual harassment. It also extends to include harassment relating to any of the following protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 (guidance here). It also covers harassment because someone has either submitted to, or rejected, sexual harassment or harassment related to sex or gender reassignment.

Employees will be able to bring a standalone claim for an employer’s failure to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment by a third party, unlike the employer’s breach of their duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

This liability is likely to pose practical challenges to employers as, more often than not, there is less control over third parties, and steps employers are able to take in respect of third parties are much more limited than steps that can be taken in relation to their own employees.

Practical considerations for employers

Regular monitoring, evaluation and refreshing of workplace policies

Ensuring that robust anti-harassment, grievance, disciplinary and whistleblowing policies and procedures are in place. Employers must carry out regular reviews of their policies to ensure compliance with the changes brought about by ERA 2025 and ensuring that these policies are accessible and adequately signposted to all workers.

Providing training to management and workers

Ensuring management and leadership teams are upskilled on how to challenge inappropriate behaviour, how to report concerns safely and how to support employees who have made a report of sexual harassment. Regular refresher training sessions are always encouraged in order to ensure company-wide legal compliance.

Encouraging empowerment to act and report

Employers should be fostering an open, safe and pro-active forum for employees to report any concerns or issues they have, anonymously or by name. Where possible, encourage early reporting of any potential incidents or near misses to proactively work towards the prevention of sexual harassment.

Risk assessments

Risk assessments should be carried out regularly and tailored to the sector, job role and environment. A tight risk assessment procedure, particularly where employees and workers are externally facing can aid employers to take preventative steps to tackle third-party harassment. Employers should ensure all risk assessments are easily accessible and viewable to workers.

As we move steadily along the implementation timeline, we are happy to work with employers to understand their new duties and obligations under the ERA 2025, and the changes that can be made to ensure legal compliance. Please feel free to reach out to our expert team at employment@berrysmith.com or on 02920 345 511.

Please note the contents of this article do not constitute legal advice.