Employment Rights Bill

Baroness Smith of Llanfaes Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 14th July 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes]

47: After Clause 22, insert the following new Clause—
“Duty to prevent violence and harassment in the workplace(1) Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (general duties of employers to their employees) is amended as follows.(2) After subsection (2)(e) insert—“(f) the adoption of proactive and preventative measures to protect all persons working in their workplace from violence and harassment, including—(i) gender-based violence; (ii) sexual harassment;(iii) psychological and emotional abuse;(iv) physical and sexual abuse;(v) stalking and harassment, including online harassment;(vi) threats of violence.”.(3) After subsection (3) insert—“(3A) It shall be the duty of every employer to prepare, and as often as may be appropriate revise, an assessment to identify potential risks of violence and harassment in the workplace and implement policies and procedures to eliminate these risks so far as is reasonably practicable.(3B) It shall be the duty of every employer to provide training to all employees on recognising and preventing violence and harassment in the workplace, with a focus on gender-responsive approaches.(3C) In subsection (3B) a “gender-responsive approach” means taking into account the various needs, interests, and experiences of people of different gender identities, including women and girls, when designing and implementing policies and procedures.(3D) In this section, “persons working in the workplace” includes—(a) employees,(b) full-time, part-time, and temporary workers, and(c) interns and apprentices.(3E) In subsection (2)(f) and subsections (3A) and (3B), a reference to the workplace includes remote and hybrid work environments.”.”Member’s explanatory statement
This new clause would amend the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to place a duty on employers to protect all those working in their workplace from gender-based violence and harassment.

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)]

My Lords, I will also speal to my Amendment 48. I have tabled these amendments to address a critical and long-standing gap in how we protect workers from sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the workplace. They are, at their heart, about prevention and ensuring that employers have a proactive duty to make workplaces safer, and that the Health and Safety Executive has a clear, enforceable role in holding them to account. As we all know, prevention is better than cure. They seek to amend the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to place an explicit duty on employers under the oversight of the HSE to prevent workplace harassment and violence, including sexual harassment and gender-based abuse.

--- Later in debate ---

I want to answer two quick points. One is on third-party harassment. Currently Clause 20 will introduce an obligation under the Equality Act 2010 on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties in the course of the employment. The other is on sexual harassment. We are supporting effective implementation of the new duty under the Equality Act 2010 on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. As I said earlier, that came into force on 26 October. Given the adequacy of the protections provided by existing legislation, I therefore respectfully ask the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, to withdraw Amendment 47.

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)]

I thank the Minister for his answer. I must admit that that answer does not counter the fact that the burden of proof remains on individuals rather than employers. I have previously shared a number of cases where, for example, big companies have had lots of media attention around lots of harassment claims but have only received a warning letter from the EHRC, in comparison with other businesses—for example, the two care homes whose cases I shared—that are treated very differently. So I am not convinced that what we currently have in regulation actually makes a difference to individual workers who are experiencing these incidents in their workplace. However, I am grateful to the Minister for recognising the importance of prevention and that there is more to be done. So, on this occasion, I will withdraw my amendment, but we will be pressing this with the Government further.

I will welcome the opportunity to look at this, particularly when the VAWG strategy is published in September. However, I must remind the Government that there has to be a cross-departmental approach. It should not be up to just one department to set it out; there is also a responsibility for this department to use all the options it has. Just doing good is not good enough—why cannot we try to achieve the best outcomes for these workers? On this occasion, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment 47 withdrawn.