From 30 October 2026, you are liable if a customer, client, contractor or anyone else outside your workforce harasses one of your employees at work and you did not take all reasonable steps to prevent it. It covers sexual harassment and harassment related to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Map where your people meet third parties, assess the risk and be ready to act.
From 30 October 2026, you can be held responsible in law when someone who does not work for you harasses someone who does. A customer shouting racist abuse at a shop assistant. A client making sexual comments to a consultant. A contractor bullying a colleague about their disability. If it happens in the course of their job and you did not take all reasonable steps to prevent it, the claim is against you.
This is not a small tweak. For anyone with customer-facing staff, it is a new risk on the register.
What the law will say
Section 21 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 adds three new subsections to section 40 of the Equality Act 2010. It comes into force on 30 October 2026 (SI 2026/1065). It is not retrospective, so it covers harassment that happens on or after that date.
- An employer must not permit a third party to harass one of its employees.
- The employer is treated as permitting it only if the harassment happens in the course of the employee’s employment, and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
- A third party is anyone other than the employer or one of its employees. Customers, clients, patients, pupils’ parents, suppliers, contractors, agency workers supplied by an agency (not your own employees) and members of the public all count.
Who and what it covers
It covers harassment as the Equality Act already defines it in section 26. That means unwanted conduct related to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation that violates someone’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. It also covers sexual harassment, and treating someone worse because they rejected or gave in to it.
Marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity, are not relevant characteristics for harassment under section 26. Unwanted conduct linked to pregnancy can still be harassment related to sex.
The Act as passed has no separate exception for expressions of opinion. But a tribunal still has to find that the conduct was harassment under section 26. That test looks at how the employee saw it, the other circumstances, and whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect. A customer disagreeing with a view is not harassment. A customer targeting someone because of their religion may well be.
How it fits with the sexual harassment duty
Since 26 October 2024 you have had a preventative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including by third parties (Equality Act 2010, s.40A). On 30 October 2026 that becomes all reasonable steps too. The difference now is that an employee harassed by a third party can bring a claim against you directly, for any of the characteristics above, not just sexual harassment.
For acts on or after 1 October 2026, most claims must be brought within six months of the act complained of, because the time limit doubled on that date. A tribunal can extend it where that is just and equitable.
What to do before 30 October
- Map where your people meet third parties. Front desks, call centres, client sites, home visits, events, deliveries. Ask staff where it already goes wrong.
- Assess the risk for each. Who, where, how often, and what makes it worse: alcohol, lone working, late hours, targets that discourage pushing back.
- Set expectations out loud. Customer-facing signage, terms of business for clients, and clauses in contractor agreements.
- Give staff permission to act. They need to know they can end a call, walk away or refuse service, and that you will back them.
- Make reporting easy. A quick way to log an incident, with a named person who will follow it up.
- Follow through every time. Warn, ban, report to the police or end the contract where it is warranted. Record what you did.
- Brief managers. “The customer is always right” is now a legal risk.
Keep the evidence. If a claim comes, you will need to show the steps you took, not describe them.
If a complaint about a client or customer escalates into a formal grievance, handle it under your normal procedure. The grievance procedure templates cover the letters and the investigation plan.
The Harassment Prevention Pack includes a third-party harassment risk assessment, alongside a reasonable steps risk assessment, policy, reporting framework, training records and board report. From £149 + VAT.
This article reflects the law in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) as checked on legislation.gov.uk on 20 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice.