Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work: What’s Changing for Employers in October 2026?
From 30 October 2026, employers in England, Scotland and Wales will face strengthened legal responsibilities to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
The changes, introduced through the Employment Rights Act 2025, mean employers must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment, rather than the existing requirement to take ‘reasonable steps’.
The updated legislation also introduces stronger protections against harassment by people outside an organisation, including customers, clients and members of the public.
These changes apply across workplaces of all sizes and sectors, making it important for employers to understand their responsibilities and consider whether their existing arrangements are sufficient.
What is changing?
Since October 2024, employers have had a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work. This means organisations should already be identifying potential risks and taking action to reduce them, rather than waiting until an incident occurs.
From 30 October 2026, this duty is being expanded further.
Under the strengthened requirements, employers will be expected to take all the preventative measures that are reasonable for their organisation.
Importantly, ‘all reasonable steps’ does not mean that every organisation must introduce identical measures, or that employers can guarantee sexual harassment will never occur.
What is reasonable will depend on factors such as the organisation’s size, resources, working environment and the risks its employees face.
The emphasis is on identifying those risks and taking appropriate, preventative action across the organisation.
What should employers be doing?
Whilst there isn’t a single checklist that guarantees an organisation is meeting its legal responsibilities, Acas guidance on preventing sexual harassment identifies several practical measures employers should consider.
These include:
- Reviewing policies and procedures: Making sure expectations around acceptable behaviour are clear, and that policies reflect the risks people may encounter in their work.
- Assessing potential risks: Considering where sexual harassment could occur, including interactions with colleagues, customers, visitors and other third parties.
- Providing appropriate learning: Helping employees recognise sexual harassment, understand their responsibilities, and know how to respond if they experience or witness inappropriate behaviour.
- Establishing clear reporting routes: Ensuring people know how to raise concerns, have more than one way to report harassment, and can feel confident that concerns will be taken seriously.
- Reviewing arrangements regularly: Checking that preventative measures are working and responding to changes in working practices or emerging risks.
Some organisations may already have appropriate measures in place. For others, the updated legislation provides an opportunity to review existing arrangements and identify areas where more work is needed.
Supporting safer and more respectful workplaces
Preventing sexual harassment involves more than having a policy available for employees to read. People need to understand what inappropriate behaviour can look like in their working context, and how to recognise and respond appropriately to potential concerns.
Learning can play an important role in building that understanding, but it should form part of a wider organisational approach that includes clear policies, effective reporting procedures and supportive leadership.
Employers can find detailed information about the October 2026 changes on the Acas website, including guidance on preventing sexual harassment and managing risks involving third parties.
At Artswork Professional Development, our Recognising and Responding to Sexual Harassment eLearning course explores the legal framework, different forms of sexual harassment and practical approaches to responding to concerns. Developed with creative, cultural and heritage workplaces in mind, the self-paced course uses realistic scenarios and reflective activities to help individuals and teams build their understanding and confidence. Our course focuses on awareness and prevention rather than blame, and encourages learners to reflect on workplace behaviours, recognise potential concerns and understand how to respond appropriately.
Robert Madge
Robert leads on sales and marketing for Artswork Professional Development, writing about professional learning and practice across the creative, cultural and heritage sectors, informed by the team’s expertise and work with organisations across the sector.