Sexual Harassment Training Requirements in United Kingdom

A mistake we often see employers commit is making decisions exclusively to meet a specific compliance obligation. For example, the country where I have employees says we have to provide training around the topics of sexual harassment and discrimination is the singular driving decision on whether to provide this type of training.
Compliance is important and should be a minimum threshold for training employees, not the determining factor for whether to provide training in the first place. There is a difference between specific country mandates and legal liability on employers when it comes to sexual harassment and discrimination.

The Equality Act of 2010 makes it very clear that it is illegal to sexually harass and or discriminate against co-workers (and job candidates) based on a series of protected classifications such as gender, ethnicity, age, etc. The United Kingdom subsequently passed the Worker Protection (Amendment of the Equality Act of 2010) Act 2023, essentially mandating all employers in the United Kingdom must provide training educating their workforce on workplace harassment and discrimination.

The general idea behind these laws is to communicate to employers the need to take reasonable steps to both prevent and remediate any potential sexual harassment or discrimination occurring in the workplace. If employers take these steps proactively, it is possible to reduce and perhaps entirely avoid liability if harassment or discrimination occurs.

If an employer does NOT provide training on sexual harassment and discrimination to their employees, the employer will NOT have this as part of their defense if being sued by a claimant, creating further exposure to liability.

For that reason (among many others), we recommend all employers in the United Kingdom provide training for all new hires and all employees on an annual basis. We strongly recommend you consult your attorney to be sure you are doing what you need to in this regard.

EEO Training maintains a guideline to help you easily see specific requirements in each country that is of interest to you. The list below provides basic legislative requirements imposed on a Province and Territory basis.