“All reasonable steps”: what the upgraded duty to prevent sexual harassment means for employers
Since October 2024, employers have had a proactive legal duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. From October 2026, the law is changing again, raising the bar on prevention and making employers liable for harassment of their staff by third parties.
From the 30th October 2026, employers will be required to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, rather than “reasonable steps”.
The change may be one small word, but the lawyers we’ve spoken to think the addition of those three letters – “all” – makes a massive difference.
This post explores what these changes mean for employers, and how they should start preparing – including how training fits into an “all reasonable steps” action plan.
This post is general guidance. For decisions about your own organisation, take advice from your legal team.
What is your legal duty as an employer?
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, which came into force in October 2024, requires employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace.
When it comes to identifying ‘reasonable steps’, the UK government directs employers towards technical advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), including an 8-step plan for HR leaders to develop an appropriate anti-sexual harassment approach.
The eight steps outlined are:
- Developing an effective anti-harassment policy
- Engaging your staff (to make sure they know the policy and to identify problem areas)
- Assessing & taking steps to reduce risks in the workplace
- Setting up a strong reporting system
- Providing awareness training to employees
- Creating a strong process for managing (and learning from) complaints
- Setting out your approach to dealing with harassment from third parties
- Monitoring and evaluating your actions (to make sure they’re actually working)
As the EHRC explains: “different employers may prevent sexual harassment in different ways, but all employers must take action and no employer is exempt from the sexual harassment preventative duty.”
What does “reasonable” mean here?
The use of the word “reasonable” refers to the idea that the preventative measures you take should be proportional to your organisation’s size, sector, working environment and resources, and to its sexual harassment risk profile. It also gives you a level of control over how you approach sexual harassment prevention in your business.
In essence, it recognises that “reasonable steps” look different for businesses of different shapes and sizes, and that the right approach is one tailored to your organisation. EHRC has included several thorough worked examples of how this might play out in practice.
What is changing?
From 30th October 2026, the requirement will be upgraded from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps” as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025.
This shift places a greater preventative duty on employers – but it also removes some of the ambiguity around the requirements, which we believe will be better for all involved. Employers defending a sexual harassment claim over an employee’s behaviour already have to show they took “all reasonable steps” to prevent it. The upgraded duty brings prevention up to that same standard.
“Removing the discrepancy helps ensure that there is no confusion or a perception that the threshold is lower for the sexual harassment duty and therefore, employers do not need to take a thorough approach to prevention”, explains an official release from the Office for Equality and Opportunity & the Department for Business & Trade.
Employers will also be liable for third-party harassment
The same Act brings in a second change on the same date. Employers will be liable if their employees are harassed in the course of their work by a third party – a client, contractor, supplier or member of the public – and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
This covers all forms of harassment under the Equality Act 2010, including harassment related to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Employees can bring a claim for it directly at an Employment Tribunal.
The government is clear that employers have less control over third parties than over their own staff, and tribunals will take that into account. What counts as reasonable depends on the type of third party, how often your people deal with them, and where.
More detail is on the way. The Act gives the government power to set out specific steps employers must take, which could cover risk assessments, published policies, reporting and complaints handling. The government will consult first, and expects regulations in 2027/28.
What’s at stake under “all reasonable steps”?
Sexual harassment at work remains common. In a survey of more than 2,000 UK employees published by Safecall in October 2025, 18% of employees said they had witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace.
In the year to March 2025, the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 22.5% of people who had experienced sexual harassment in person in the previous 12 months experienced it at their place of work.
The legal and financial implications
If an employee experiences sexual harassment in the workplace, they can bring a claim against their employer to an Employment Tribunal. If this claim is successful and compensation is awarded, the Tribunal will then look at whether the employer took appropriate measures – “all reasonable steps” – to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace from occurring. If they did not, the Tribunal can increase the compensation by up to 25%.
This is where the addition of that word “all” really matters – it’s a substantial raising of the bar.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission also enforces the duty, and can take action against an employer whether or not anyone has brought a claim. And from 1 October 2026, employees have six months, up from three, to bring most tribunal claims.
The wider cultural risk
Most workplace sexual harassment never reaches a tribunal, and much of it goes unreported. In a 2025 Unite survey of 6,615 women members, three quarters of respondents said they had not reported the harassment they experienced. Construction, passenger transport and road transport were among the sectors with the highest levels.
After working closely with the team at law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore, we know all too well that sexual harassment can have a profoundly negative impact on individuals who experience it directly. But we’ve also heard how this behaviour impacts organisations as a whole.
When unacceptable behaviour goes unchecked, everybody suffers. There’s a gradual loss of morale, staff may move on more quickly, and productivity can take a real hit. Companies begin unknowingly building a bad reputation behind their backs.
Stopping sexual harassment from seeping into your culture brings benefits that go beyond the compensation headline – and official figures tell only part of the story.
When unacceptable behaviour goes unchecked, everybody suffers.
What should employers do to prepare?
Whether we’re considering “reasonable steps” or “all reasonable steps”, the underlying message of the law remains the same: be proactive.
With this in mind, here’s how we recommend reviewing and refining your approach to sexual harassment prevention, in line with EHRC’s recommended 8-step plan.
1. Review (or create) your sexual harassment policy
Establish your company’s position on sexual harassment: what behaviour is unacceptable, how to report behaviour that crosses this boundary, and the disciplinary action that will be taken. Clarify how this applies to third parties, like customers and contractors, too.
Then, make sure everyone in the company actually knows about it and understands it. Ensure there are always structured, official opportunities to share complaints and concerns (exit interviews, surveys), as well as more casual or ‘open door’ style options (1-2-1s, dedicated email addresses). Employees should have the option to report incidents or concerns anonymously, should they wish.
2. Identify risky circumstances and dynamics & reduce them
Sexual harassment is more likely to happen in certain settings, or when certain dynamics are at play: at social events with alcohol, during work travel, where there’s a strong power imbalance, or when there’s a lack of workforce diversity.
Carry out a risk assessment of your company’s own circumstances, pinpointing the factors or situations that make sexual harassment more likely. EHRC provides a list to start from, but each company is different, and you should engage with your own employees to surface these problematic dynamics or high-risk events. Once identified, create and implement an action plan to minimise these risks.
3. Train your staff effectively
Training is an essential step for educating your workforce on:
- What sexual harassment actually is
- How to recognise it
- What to do if they experience or witness it
During our sexual harassment awareness training workshops, participants first witness a scenario play out between colleagues, and then reflect on it together in a discussion led by our facilitators.
The scenario is grounded in real workplace experiences, and we pitch it carefully: some believe it’s harmless banter, and others feel passionately that what they have witnessed is very wrong. Many sit somewhere in the middle: uneasy but unsure.
Everyone has their own preconceptions about the term ‘sexual harassment’, and this highlights just how important it is to get everyone on the same page. If employees don’t first understand what behaviour qualifies as sexual harassment, and how their actions may make others feel, preventing it from happening is an uphill battle.
The EHRC is clear on the importance of training as part of “all reasonable steps”, specifying that you should provide effective training at regular intervals.
In the case of Allay (UK) Ltd v Gehlen (2021), which concerned race-related harassment, the Employment Appeal Tribunal agreed that an employer could not rely on the “all reasonable steps” defence because its equality training ‘had become stale and required refreshing’.
Acas (the government-funded Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) makes the same point. Its example of an employer likely to have taken all reasonable steps includes making sure the employee signs up for mandatory sexual harassment training.
4. Revisit how you work with third parties
As well as introducing the shift to “all reasonable steps”, the Employment Rights Act makes you liable for harassment of your employees by third parties, such as customers, contractors and members of the public, unless you have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Review how you set expectations with those you work with, and also aim to reduce the situations that can leave either party vulnerable. Map which third parties your people deal with, how often and in what settings, and build that into your risk assessment. Set expectations in contracts and terms of business, and make sure your policy explains how employees report harassment by someone outside the organisation.
Finally: check it’s working
Taking “all reasonable steps” means proactively checking that the measures you’re taking are working, and improving them where the evidence tells you to.
Look at trends in your report data to spot problem areas. Continue to engage with your staff, and check how survey responses match up with reported issues. Re-evaluate risks as your business grows and changes, and hold ‘lessons-learned’ sessions after complaints are resolved.
And commit to providing regular training with evidence that it works – training that’s memorable, practical and impactful, and that creates a strong shared foundation on which to build the rest of your anti-harassment approach.
On 1 December, we are hosting a showcase event of the ATT Sexual Harassment Awareness Workshop, where we combine live drama with facilitated discussion to equip people across organisations to take an active role in preventing workplace sexual harassment – and explore how it could form a key component of an “all reasonable steps” approach. Request your place here.
