ILO Convention 190

Lord Addington Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is obviously right and correct that we need to be concerned about prevention and building a culture of positive employers’ attitudes towards tackling harassment and victimisation in the workplace, rather than simply relying on tackling harm when it is caught.

However, we have very strong laws and regulations in place right now. As I said, harassment is covered under the Equality Act 2010, which was recently strengthened in October 2024 to place a specific duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The noble Baroness will remember well the debates we had in Committee on the then Employment Rights Bill, now Act, where we changed the law to toughen it up further so that employers must take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment before it starts and create and maintain workplaces free from harassment.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the rise in the number of reported harassment cases—certainly of women—means either that we have got a great rise in the number of incidents or that people are more prepared to report it? If so, can we make sure that there is an easier way of getting resolution of any complaint? Something that is merely reported and talked about will mean nothing unless there is an effective enforcement regime in place.

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that enforcement is as much a part of tackling the issue as is creating solutions to the nature of workplace culture. The Employment Rights Act does a number of things in this regard. As well as what I have already mentioned, it voids non-disclosure agreements between employers and workers that prevent a woman speaking out about relevant harassment and discrimination. It also strengthens protection for whistleblowers, making it explicit that sexual harassment can be the basis for protected disclosure. On top of all else, it creates the Fair Work Agency, which will monitor all these new workplace rights.