Worker Protection Act: What Employers Need to Know in 2026

Worker Protection Act: Key Employer Responsibilities & Compliance Steps

This blog was updated August 2026

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 introduced a proactive legal duty requiring employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.

That duty came into force on 26 October 2024. Further employment law changes taking effect during 2026 strengthen these responsibilities and introduce additional protections relating to third-party harassment and workers who report sexual harassment.

These developments are especially significant for organisations employing lone and public-facing workers. Employees who work alone may regularly interact with customers, patients, tenants, service users and members of the public without a colleague nearby to intervene or provide immediate support.

What is the Worker Protection Act?

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 amended the Equality Act 2010 by creating a preventative duty for employers.

Since 26 October 2024, employers have been required to take reasonable steps to prevent employees from experiencing sexual harassment in the course of their employment.

This is an anticipatory duty. Employers should not wait for an incident or formal complaint before acting. They are expected to identify where sexual harassment could occur and introduce proportionate measures to reduce the risk.

Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of:

• violating someone’s dignity; or
• creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

The preventative duty applies to sexual harassment by employees and to the risk of sexual harassment by third parties, including customers, clients, patients, service users and members of the public.

Why Was the Worker Protection Act Introduced?

In 2018, the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) published a report highlighting the extent of sexual harassment in workplaces. This report, along with campaigns by groups like the Fawcett Society, prompted the UK government to conduct its own consultation, revealing that 54% of respondents had experienced workplace harassment.

Workplace harassment, especially sexual harassment, has been a longstanding issue. A 2022 Gender Equality in the Workplace report by Randstad found that 72% of surveyed women had experienced or witnessed harassing behaviour from male colleagues, and 67% had faced gender discrimination. Additionally, 32% felt their careers were negatively impacted by sexual harassment.

Before the preventative duty was introduced, employers could already be held legally responsible for certain acts carried out by their employees. However, there was no equivalent proactive duty requiring every employer to anticipate sexual harassment risks before an incident occurred.

The Worker Protection Act changed that position. Prevention must now form part of the employer’s approach rather than relying solely on policies and procedures for responding to complaints.

For organisations with lone or public-facing employees, this requires consideration of the environments in which people work, the third parties they encounter and the availability of support if inappropriate behaviour escalates.

What did the Worker Protection Act Introduce in October 2024?

A proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment

Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees during the course of their employment.

What is reasonable will depend on factors including:

• the size and resources of the organisation;
• the working environment;
• the nature of the organisation’s activities;
• the risks present within particular roles;
• employees’ contact with customers and other third parties;
• previous complaints, incidents and warning signs; and
• the likely effectiveness of different preventative measures.

All employers must take action. Having a policy in place without assessing risks, communicating the policy or implementing appropriate controls is unlikely to be sufficient.

You can download our free Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist

Enforcement by the EHRC

The Equality and Human Rights Commission can take enforcement action where it suspects an employer has failed to comply with the preventative duty.

This does not depend on an individual first succeeding in a sexual harassment claim. The EHRC’s powers can include investigating an employer, issuing an unlawful act notice, requiring an action plan or entering into a legally binding agreement with the organisation.

Compensation uplift

An employee cannot currently bring a standalone employment tribunal claim solely because an employer breached the preventative duty.

However, where an employee succeeds in a sexual harassment claim, the tribunal must consider whether the employer complied with its preventative duty.

If the duty was breached, compensation can be increased by up to 25%. As compensation for discrimination and harassment is not subject to a general statutory cap, this uplift could be significant

What is changing to the Worker Protection Act in 2026?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces further changes affecting workplace harassment.

Whistleblowing protection for reports of sexual harassment

From 6th April 2026, the law explicitly recognises that a disclosure about sexual harassment can qualify for whistleblowing protection.

Previously, a worker reporting sexual harassment may have needed to show that the concern fell within another recognised category of wrongdoing, such as a breach of a legal obligation or a danger to health and safety.

The change makes it clearer that workers who make qualifying disclosures about sexual harassment can be protected from detrimental treatment. Employees can also be protected from unfair dismissal connected to making a protected disclosure.

Employers should therefore review their whistleblowing policies, brief managers and ensure that reports of sexual harassment are directed into appropriate investigation and safeguarding processes.

For lone workers, this is particularly relevant where an employee reports a recurring risk posed by a customer, tenant, patient or other third party.

“All reasonable steps” from October 2026

From 30th October 2026, the preventative duty will become more demanding. Employers will be required to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, rather than reasonable steps.

The distinction is important. It is likely to place greater pressure on employers to identify the full range of practical measures available and to explain why any potentially reasonable measure was not implemented.

The government will also have the power to introduce regulations specifying evidence-based preventative steps employers must take. These regulations would complement, rather than replace, the wider duty to take all reasonable steps.

Employers should not assume that arrangements introduced in 2024 will remain sufficient. Risk assessments, policies, training, reporting procedures and protective measures should be reviewed before the strengthened duty takes effect.

A clearer obligation concerning third-party harassment

From 30th October 2026, employers will also have an express obligation not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties.

Third parties can include:

• customers;
• clients;
• patients;
• service users;
• tenants and residents;
• suppliers;
• contractors;
• visitors;
• students; and
• members of the public.

The current preventative duty already requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties. However, an employee cannot currently bring a standalone claim solely for third-party harassment.

The 2026 provision introduces more explicit legal protection where an employer knows that an employee is being harassed by a third party but fails to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

This will be especially important in public-facing sectors where inappropriate, abusive or discriminatory behaviour has sometimes been dismissed as an unavoidable part of the job.

Why do the Worker Protection Act changes matter for lone workers?

Lone workers are people who work without close or direct supervision. They are found across many sectors and roles, including:

• housing officers and property managers;
• community healthcare and care workers;
• retail and hospitality employees;
• social workers;
• estate agents;
• enforcement officers;
• security personnel;
• facilities and cleaning staff;
• utility engineers and field technicians;
• delivery and transport workers; and
• employees visiting customers’ homes or remote sites.

Many of these employees spend much of their working day interacting with people outside their own organisation.

Working alone does not necessarily cause harassment, but it can increase an employee’s vulnerability or make the consequences more serious. There may be no colleague present to witness the behaviour, interrupt an incident, help the worker leave or summon assistance.

Risk can be heightened when employees:

• enter private homes or isolated locations;
• work during evenings or at night;
• deal with individuals known to have behaved aggressively;
• enforce rules or communicate unwelcome decisions;
• handle money, valuable goods or medication;
• work in roles involving authority or personal care;
• travel alone between appointments; or
• cannot easily leave the environment.

SoloProtect’s 2026 Lone Worker Survey illustrates the wider risks facing this workforce. It found that 56% of respondents had experienced verbal or physical abuse during the previous 12 months. Half had avoided a task or location because they felt unsafe, while 38% believed their job had become more dangerous over the previous three years.

Although verbal abuse, violence and sexual harassment are distinct issues, these findings demonstrate why employers should not consider harassment policies separately from their wider lone-worker safety arrangements.

What could “all reasonable steps” mean for employers?

The law does not provide one universal checklist that will apply to every organisation. Appropriate measures will depend on the employer, the role, the working environment and the risks employees face.

However, employers of lone workers should consider the following areas.

1. Assess harassment risks within specific roles

A general workplace risk assessment may not identify the situations faced by employees working away from a fixed site.

Employers should assess:

• who employees interact with;
• where those interactions take place;
• whether employees attend alone;
• the duration and timing of appointments;
• known information about individuals or locations;
• previous incidents and near misses;
• whether alcohol, drugs or heightened emotions could be present;
• how quickly an employee could leave; and
• how assistance would be summoned.

The EHRC advises that employers are unlikely to meet the preventative duty without carrying out a harassment risk assessment.

Lone working should be treated as an important risk factor within that assessment.

2. Consider harassment by third parties

Employers should consider behaviour from customers and members of the public as well as conduct between colleagues.

This means identifying which roles have regular contact with third parties and whether certain environments or activities create a higher risk.

Examples could include:

• a housing officer visiting a tenant who has previously made inappropriate comments;
• a community nurse entering a patient’s home alone;
• a retail worker staffing a shop late at night;
• an estate agent conducting an unaccompanied viewing;
• hospitality employee dealing with intoxicated customers; or
  an enforcement officer communicating a decision that could lead to confrontation.

Where risks are foreseeable, employers should establish clear controls rather than placing responsibility on the employee to manage the situation alone.

You can read more about stalking and harassment in our article: Stalking and Harassment at Work: UK Law, Employer Responsibilities, and How to Support Victims

3. Connect harassment and lone-working policies

Anti-harassment, lone-working, violence-at-work and whistleblowing policies should not operate in isolation.

Together, they should explain:

• the behaviour that will not be tolerated;
• that third-party harassment should be reported;
• how employees can report concerns;
• managers must do when a concern is raised;
• when an employee can withdraw from an appointment;
• when two employees should attend;
• how known risks will be recorded and communicated;
• when a customer or service user relationship will be reviewed; and
• what support is available following an incident.

Employees should not have to decide whether an event belongs in an HR system, a health and safety system or an incident register before it can be reported.

4. Establish accessible reporting procedures

Workers may not report harassment because they believe it will not be taken seriously, there were no witnesses or the behaviour is considered normal within their sector.

Employers should provide more than one reporting route and make it clear that workers can report:

• completed incidents;
• inappropriate comments or behaviour;
• patterns of escalating conduct;
• near misses;
• concerns about future appointments; and
• situations in which they felt unsafe even if no physical incident occurred.

Reports involving a third party should inform future risk assessments and decisions about whether another employee should return to the same person or location alone.

5. Train employees and managers

Training should be relevant to the situations employees are likely to face.

It may need to cover:

• recognising sexual harassment;
• third-party harassment;
• organisational reporting procedures;
• responding to disclosures;
• dynamic risk assessment;
• personal safety and situational awareness;
• conflict management and de-escalation;
• safely withdrawing from a situation; and
• using any communication or lone-worker safety system provided.

Managers require specific training. A policy will have limited value if concerns are dismissed, poorly recorded or not used to update working arrangements.

6. Respond to known risks

Once an employer becomes aware that a customer, patient, tenant or other individual has behaved inappropriately, it should consider what action is necessary before further contact occurs.

Depending on the circumstances, this might include:

• changing how services are delivered;
• issuing a behavioural warning;
• arranging for two employees to attend;
• moving an appointment to a controlled environment;
• providing security support;
• allocating a different employee where appropriate;
• restricting contact;
• ending a commercial relationship; or
• involving the police or another agency.

Employees should not automatically be sent back into the same environment under unchanged arrangements.

7. Provide a reliable way to obtain help

Where employees work alone, employers should consider how they will communicate and obtain assistance during an incident.

Depending on the level of risk, controls could include:

• agreed check-in procedures;
• escalation arrangements for missed appointments;
• access to a phone or radio;
• monitored lone-worker devices or apps;
• discreet panic alarms;
• location information;
• scheduled contact from a manager; and
• procedures for contacting the emergency services

Technology should form part of a broader risk-management system rather than being treated as a substitute for risk assessment, training or appropriate staffing.

8. Monitor effectiveness

Compliance is not a one-off exercise.

Employers should regularly review:

• incident and near-miss reports;
• employee feedback;
• recurring individuals or locations;
• whether employees are using reporting systems;
• response times and escalation outcomes;
• training completion and understanding;
• whether existing controls are working; and
• whether changes in services or working patterns have introduced new risks.

Low incident numbers should not automatically be interpreted as low risk. They may instead indicate that workers do not feel confident reporting their experiences.

Does the Worker Protection Act only cover incidents in a traditional workplace?

No. The duty applies to sexual harassment occurring in the course of employment, not only conduct taking place in an office or other employer-controlled premises.

Depending on the circumstances, this can include work taking place:

• at a customer’s premises;
• in a patient’s or tenant’s home;
• at a remote site;
• during business travel;
• at a work-related event;
• online or through work-related communications; or
• in a public place while carrying out work duties.

For that reason, employers should consider the full working environment of lone and mobile employees.

How Can Lone Worker Technology Support an Employer’s Approach?

A personal safety device or lone-worker app does not, by itself, demonstrate compliance with the Worker Protection Act or other employment and health and safety legislation.

However, appropriate technology can support a wider prevention and response strategy by giving employees:

• a discreet means of raising an alarm;
• access to trained support;
• an agreed emergency response;
• location support where required;
• greater confidence when entering higher-risk environments; and
• a way to record relevant information before or during an incident.

Monitored solutions can also provide employers with information that supports incident investigation and the ongoing review of risks.

For example, a SoloProtect user can activate a Red Alert if they feel at risk. An operator at our Alarm Receiving Centre can listen to what is happening, locate the user or device and escalate the incident in line with an agreed response procedure.

Audio captured during an alarm may also provide important evidence for internal investigations or subsequent action.

Technology should be selected following an assessment of the employee’s role, foreseeable risks and the type of response they may require.

Employer Checklist for 2026

Before the strengthened duties take effect, employers should:

• review their sexual harassment risk assessment;
• identify lone and public-facing roles exposed to third parties;
• update harassment, lone-working and whistleblowing policies;
• analyse previous incidents, near misses and employee feedback;
• establish clear procedures for known high-risk people and locations;
• train workers and managers on third-party harassment;
• provide accessible reporting and escalation routes;
• review communication and emergency-response arrangements;
• consult employees about the risks they experience; and
• record why particular preventative measures were or were not implemented.

Protecting Lone and Public-facing Workers

The Worker Protection Act marked a shift from responding to sexual harassment after it happens towards anticipating and preventing it.

The changes taking effect in 2026 reinforce this expectation. Employers will need to show that they have considered all reasonable preventative measures, properly addressed risks from third parties and created an environment in which workers can raise concerns safely.

For organisations with lone and public-facing workers, this requires more than a generic harassment policy. Employers need to understand the situations their employees encounter, respond to warning signs and ensure people can access help when working without colleagues nearby.

SoloProtect provides monitored lone-worker devices and apps supported by trained operators at our 24/7 Alarm Receiving Centre.

Book a free demo, request a personalised quote or contact our team to discuss your lone-worker safety requirements.

Useful resources:

• Government Employment Rights Act Timeline
• Whistleblowing protections for sexual harassment
• Equality Human Rights Guidance
• CIPD Guidance

Protect your employees from workplace harassment and comply with the Worker Protection Act. Contact SoloProtect today to explore lone worker safety solutions that provide real-time protection and compliance support.

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