ILO Convention 190

Baroness Smith of Llanfaes Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the UK’s implementation of ILO Convention 190, which recognises the right to be free from violence and harassment in the workplace.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK ratified ILO Convention 190 in March 2022, demonstrating its commitment to preventing and addressing violence and harassment in the workplace. We have a robust legislative framework in place, consisting of strong health and safety at work and discrimination laws. We are confident that these meet the convention’s requirements. These protections will be further strengthened through the Employment Rights Act 2025, which includes a requirement for employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and harassment by third parties.

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. However, if one in five workers reports feeling at risk of violence at work, on what basis are His Majesty’s Government confident that existing legislation is sufficient to result in prevention, rather than simply to respond to the harm once it has occurred?

[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.