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Government Launches New Enquiry into Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

on Friday, 23 February 2018.

In response to research pointing to the widespread prevalence of unwanted sexual behaviour at work, the Women and Equalities Committee has launched a full inquiry to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Committee will start taking evidence on 13 March 2018. 

Our earlier article regarding sexual harassment (following topical allegations of sexual misconduct in November 2017), provides details of what constitutes sexual harassment and outlines the steps that employers should take to ensure that they provide a safe and inclusive environment to all staff. 

The Scope of the Inquiry 

The Government are inviting written evidence on:

  • how widespread sexual harassment is in the workplace, who experiences it and who perpetrates it
  • the actions that the Government and employers should be taking to change workplace culture to prevent sexual harassment and to encourage people to report any instances of sexual harassment that do occur
  • how workers can be better protected from sexual harassment by clients, customer and third parties
  • the effectiveness and accessibility of tribunals and other legal means of redress and what can be done to improve those processes
  • the advantages and disadvantages of using non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, including how inappropriate use of such agreements might be tackled

Why Now?

This follows research from a survey of UK adults by 'ComRes' on behalf of the BBC, which found that 40% of women and more than 18% of men have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace. The instances of unwanted sexual behaviour noted ranged from explicit jokes, comments of a sexual nature to serious sexual assault, all of which can constitute sexual harassment.

In addition, this is in response to oral evidence of the widespread instances of sexual harassment in the UK workplace received by the Women and Equalities Committee from experts in employment and law. This is coupled with the recent report conducted following Westminster sex scandal stories, which exposed that nearly one in five people working in Britain's parliament were sexually harassed or witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the last year.

The subject of sexual harassment is particularly topical in light of the recent President's Club charity gala, where women were asked to sign a NDA without being given the opportunity to read it beforehand. It has been argued that their use is inappropriate in instances of sexual harassment, and that NDAs are used by employers to effectively cover up any wrongdoing to prevent negative press.

Best Practice

Employers should be clear on what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace to ensure that their employees are adequately protected.

In light of the prevalence of sexual harassment in the UK workplace, employers should consider their policies, training and ensure that they have an adequate complaints procedure to protect victims.

The Government has encouraged a cultural shift to prevent instances of sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace and employers should facilitate this by fostering an open and supportive environment for all staff.

We will keep you updated with the outcome of the enquiry in due course.  


For more information, please contact Eleanor Boyd in our Employment Law team on 020 7665 0940.

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