From 30 October 2026, small employers become liable for harassment of their staff by customers, clients and other outsiders unless they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Harassment at work rarely comes only from colleagues. In a small business, staff spend much of the day with customers, clients and suppliers, and from 30 October 2026 the law expects employers to protect them from those people too. Employers of every size must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, and they become liable for third-party harassment (harassment of their staff by people they do not employ) unless they have taken all reasonable steps. For a firm with a handful of staff, this is the part of the Employment Rights Act 2025 we would act on first. What it asks of you, and what to do before the date, is set out below.
The Act became law on 18 December 2025. According to Acas, it adds to and amends existing legislation, including the Employment Rights Act 1996, and its changes are being phased in through 2026 and 2027. So the new harassment duties sit alongside rules many employers will already know.
What changes on 30 October 2026
The harassment change has two parts. The first is a higher duty. Employers already have to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment; as L&E Global points out, that threshold rises to “all reasonable steps” from 30 October. It is one extra word. It still raises the bar.
The second part is new liability for harassment by people outside the business. Here the test that defines the duty is also your defence. If you can show you took all reasonable steps, the liability does not fall on you. If you cannot, it does.
Both measures belong to a wider October package that also strengthens trade union rights significantly, including new workplace access rights for unions, which L&E Global says are backed by substantial financial penalties for non-compliance. It describes October as possibly the most significant employment law milestone for employers since the first tranche of reforms took effect in April 2026.
What harassment by outsiders means for a small business
Most harassment policies are written with colleagues in mind. The new protections reach further, to people who are not on your payroll. In a small firm these are often the people your staff deal with every day: the customer at the counter, the client whose home an electrician is working in, a visiting supplier, the caller on the other end of the phone.
The sources we have used do not set out the detailed requirements of the third-party protections, and they do not define what “all reasonable steps” will mean in practice.
What they do make clear is where the weight falls. It falls on what you can show you did before anything happened, which shapes every step further down this page.
Why the longer time limit makes this more pressing
Complaints take time to surface. L&E Global notes that from 1 October 2026 the time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims rose from three months to six, which doubles the window in which a harassment complaint can become a claim. Acas adds that the three-month limit may still apply where the problem started before 1 October 2026.
Staff who raise sexual harassment are also better protected than they were. Since 6 April 2026, sexual harassment has been a qualifying disclosure under whistleblowing law, so someone who reports it is protected from detriment and from unfair dismissal for doing so. Put the two changes together. A member of staff who speaks up now has legal protection for doing it and twice as long to bring a claim, which is why the steps you take before 30 October carry more weight than they would have a year ago.
Steps a small employer can take before the deadline
L&E Global expects the enhanced protections to increase scrutiny of employer policies, training and workplace culture. Those are the areas to work on. In a small business none of them needs to be elaborate, though each step has to be real.
- Keep a dated record of everything below: when the policy was issued, who has read it, when training took place and how any complaint was handled. This is the step we would start with. A sensible policy that nobody can prove was shared does very little for you if a claim arrives.
- Write or update a harassment policy that names people outside the business. Say plainly that harassment by customers, clients, suppliers and visitors is covered, and set out what staff can expect you to do if it happens.
- Tell staff how to report harassment and who to report it to. In a very small firm the owner may be the only route, so offer a second contact if you can. Then check that everyone knows the process, including part-time and newer staff.
- Train staff, starting with anyone who deals with the public or works on clients’ premises. A short, practical session is a reasonable place to start.
- Think through the situations where your staff are most exposed, such as lone working at a customer’s property. Decide in advance what you would do if a complaint came in, so the response doesn’t depend on who happens to be around that day.
- Review any confidentiality wording. Acas says clauses that stop workers from alleging or disclosing work-related harassment or discrimination will be void from 2027. Regulations on non-disclosure agreements also appear among the 2027 measures on the government’s GOV.UK implementation timeline. Check contracts, settlement templates and staff handbooks now.
Where this sits among the other changes
The harassment duty arrives alongside a run of other changes, several of which have already started. The Fair Work Agency, set up on 7 April 2026, brings existing enforcement bodies together and takes on enforcement of rights such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay. Statutory sick pay is now paid from the first day of illness instead of the fourth, and the lower earnings limit has gone. Employers must also keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least six years. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day one rights in April 2026.
The larger change for small employers comes on 1 January 2027. From then, employees will be able to claim unfair dismissal after six months in a job instead of two years, and the compensation limit for unfair dismissal will be removed. Acas notes that this protection had been expected to be a day one right before the government changed it to a six-month qualifying period. Harassment complaints and dismissals can overlap. A complaint may end with someone leaving, or a dismissal may be followed by an allegation that harassment was ignored. With more staff able to claim and no cap on compensation, having your harassment steps in place and on paper protects the business as well as the people working in it.
More is due during 2027, though exact dates for most of it have not been announced. Dismissal and rehire will become automatically unfair in most cases from January 2027. An employer refusing a flexible working request will have to give the business reason from a list of eight acceptable reasons and explain why refusal is reasonable; Acas is consulting on flexible working requests until 17 December 2026. Workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts will gain rights to guaranteed hours if they want them, reasonable notice of shifts and compensation when shifts are cancelled, shortened or moved. A new right to bereavement leave is coming, though the leave will be unpaid. Pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave will get stronger protection from dismissal. If you run a hospitality business, the tipping changes due by the end of 2026 mean consulting staff before creating or reviewing a tipping policy, sharing an anonymised summary of their feedback and updating the policy at least every three years.
Where to check the details and get advice
Acas keeps a running list of changes and dates on its Employment Rights Act page. It is also running a masterclass on probation and the Act on Tuesday 27 October 2026, three days before the harassment changes start. The GOV.UK timeline was updated on 25 September 2026 to confirm the measures taking effect in October 2026. The same page carries the roadmap paper the government published in July 2025, which sets out its approach to delivering the changes.
Written guidance only goes so far when you are putting together a policy for your own business. Employment advice is work people prefer to find through someone they trust, and FindaBiz has an HR seat, held in the Lutterworth group. Each group holds one seat per trade, so the person in that seat has a reputation to keep with everyone else in the room.
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