UK businesses have fewer than three months to prepare for their expanded legal duty to prevent sexual harassment at work, but many lack the basic steps. New data from compliance eLearning provider VinciWorks, which polled 985 UK-based HR and compliance professionals in July 2026, suggests that many still can’t demonstrate they’ve put in place the required reasonable steps.
From 1 October 2026, the Employment Rights Act raises the bar from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”. This is a significant change that requires many organisations to take more action than they ever have to prevent sexual harassment. Under the current standard, an employer can point to some effort and argue it was reasonable. Under the new standard, the burden falls on employers to explain anything left undone.
Managers are typically the first point of contact an employee reports to when something happens, yet only 30% of businesses provide them with dedicated training on how to respond. Almost a third (32%) fold manager training into general staff sessions, and a fifth (21%) provide no specific manager training at all.
That one-in-five figure is where significant risks exist for many organisations. A manager handling a sexual harassment report in the wrong way can turn a manageable situation into a mishandled one, potentially triggering a whistleblowing breach as well since sexual harassment became a protected...
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