On 5 November 2026, Russell Brand was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The verdict comes just six days after significant changes to UK sexual harassment legislation came into force, placing greater responsibility on employers to prevent harassment in the workplace.
While the conviction concerns criminal offences committed before these changes, it raises a wider question that employers cannot afford to ignore. What happens when the person accused of inappropriate behaviour holds a position of power, influence, or commercial importance?
Too often, the difficulty is not that organisations lack policies prohibiting sexual harassment. It is whether employees genuinely feel able to raise concerns, particularly when doing so could put their career, reputation, or working relationships at risk.
What changed on 30 October 2026?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 has strengthened employers’ existing obligations under the Equality Act 2010 in two important ways.
1. Employers must now take `all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment
Since October 2024, employers have been under a preventative duty to take reasonable steps to protect employees from sexual harassment. From 30 October 2026, that obligation has been strengthened to require all reasonable steps.
This is more than a change in wording. Employers must now be able to demonstrate that they have identified the risks within their organisation and taken all the preventative measures that are reasonable in their circumstances.
2. Employers can now be liable for harassment by third parties
The legislation also extends protection to harassment by individuals outside the organisation, including clients, customers, contractors and other third parties.
Importantly, this protection is not limited to sexual harassment. It also covers harassment relating to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, subject to the Act’s exclusions.
In addition, from 30 October 2026 workers are protected from suffering detriment for making allegations of, or disclosures relating to, sexual harassment. This change effectively brings complaints of sexual harassment within the whistleblowing framework, providing additional protection for those who speak up and reinforcing the Government’s objective of encouraging concerns to be raised at an early stage. This is a significant development for employers, particularly when considering how concerns are received, investigated, and managed in practice.
Where third party harassment takes place during the course of employment, an employer may be liable if it cannot demonstrate that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment from happening. For businesses where employees regularly entertain clients, attend industry events or work closely with external stakeholders, this is particularly significant.
The challenge of power and influence in the workplace
One of the most difficult situations an employer can face is an allegation against someone who is commercially valuable or holds a senior position.
What happens when the complaint concerns a director, a high-performing employee, or a client responsible for a significant proportion of the company’s revenue? Will the organisation respond with the same seriousness as it would if the complaint concerned a junior employee?
The reality is that an anti-harassment policy is of little value if employees believe that certain individuals are effectively untouchable. Employers must recognise that power imbalances, workplace hierarchies and concerns about career progression can discourage individuals from speaking up. These are precisely the risks that an effective preventative approach should identify and address.
Culture is now a governance issue
The most significant feature of this recent strengthened legislation may not be the legal wording itself but the shift in focus from policies to culture. Increasingly, regulators, tribunals and employees are examining not what an organisation says about harassment, but how concerns are handled in practice.
When allegations involve senior individuals, rainmakers, founders or commercially significant clients, the real test of an organisation’s culture becomes apparent. The question is whether concerns can be investigated independently and objectively, regardless of the status of the individual involved.
For boards and senior leadership teams, sexual harassment prevention is therefore no longer solely an HR issue. It is a governance, risk, and reputation issue. Organisations that fail to address power dynamics may find that the greatest risk lies not in the allegation itself, but in the perception that different standards apply to different people.
What should employers be doing now?
The strengthened requirements do not mean employers must guarantee that harassment will never occur. They do, however, need to demonstrate that they have taken every preventative step that is reasonable for their organisation.
In practice, this means:
- Assessing workplace risks: Identifying where harassment is most likely to occur, particularly where there are power imbalances, lone working, client entertainment, or alcohol-related work events. If a risk assessment has not been undertaken, it will be very difficult to demonstrate that all proper risks were identified.
- Reviewing reporting procedures: Ensuring employees feel safe that they can and have a confidential route to raise concerns, including where an allegation involves senior management.
- Providing effective training: Equipping managers to recognise inappropriate behaviour, respond appropriately to concerns and understand their own responsibilities.
- Addressing third-party risks: Making clear to clients, customers, contractors and other common third parties that interact with staff, that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated simply because of their commercial importance.
- Reviewing and documenting action: Keeping appropriate records of risk assessments, training, complaints, and the measures taken to prevent further incidents.
- The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s increasing role
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published updated technical guidance to help employers understand what compliance with the new preventative duty looks like in practice. The guidance emphasises that employers should take a proactive rather than reactive approach, including:
- carrying out regular risk assessments
- implementing effective reporting mechanisms
- providing meaningful training, and
- monitoring whether preventative measures are actually working.
Failure to comply can have serious consequences. In addition to potential enforcement action by the EHRC, where an employee succeeds in a sexual harassment claim an Employment Tribunal may increase compensation by up to 25% if the employer has breached its preventative duty.
However, the financial consequences are only part of the picture. The damage to employee confidence, workplace culture and an organisation’s reputation can be equally significant.
Ultimately therefore, the question employers should be asking is not whether they have a sexual harassment policy, but whether they have created a workplace where concerns can be raised, heard and investigated without fear or favour, regardless of the seniority, influence or commercial value of the individual involved.
