The bill amends the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to impose an express duty on employers to adopt proactive, preventive measures against violence and harassment in the workplace and to provide gender-responsive training. It defines the types of conduct covered, extends the workplace concept to remote and hybrid settings, and explicitly covers a broad class of ‘persons working’ including applicants and volunteers.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) must develop and publish a health and safety framework on violence and harassment and issue employer guidance, working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and law enforcement. For compliance officers and legal teams, the bill raises practical questions about implementation, monitoring, and the interaction with existing equality and safety duties for employers of all sizes.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds a new employer duty to adopt proactive measures to prevent violence and harassment, requires risk assessments and recurring training (with a defined “gender-responsive approach”), and expands the statutory definition of who the duty covers. It obliges the HSE to publish a dedicated framework and to issue practical guidance.
Who It Affects
All UK employers operating in England, Wales and Scotland — including those with remote or hybrid staff — plus volunteers, interns and job applicants; the HSE, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and law enforcement will play roles in developing guidance and monitoring compliance.
Why It Matters
The bill elevates violence and harassment — including gender-based misconduct — into statutory health and safety obligations rather than solely equality or employment law matters. That reframing shifts compliance responsibilities onto health and safety governance and requires employers to document risk assessments and training as part of their safety management systems.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill inserts a new, express obligation into the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requiring employers to take proactive and preventative measures against a defined set of violent and harassing behaviours. It does not leave the matter to guidance alone: employers must prepare and periodically revise written assessments that identify risks of violence and harassment and must implement policies and procedures designed to eliminate those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
The text reaches beyond employees to cover applicants, volunteers, interns and other categories, and applies in remote and hybrid working arrangements.
Training becomes a statutory obligation. Employers must provide training to all staff on recognising and preventing violence and harassment, and the bill requires that training adopt a “gender-responsive approach,” a term the bill defines to mean taking account of different genders’ needs and experiences when designing policies and procedures.
The bill does not prescribe curriculum, duration, or frequency for training; it requires only that employers provide it, leaving detailed content and delivery to the HSE framework and guidance that the bill also mandates.The Health and Safety Executive must develop and publish a health and safety framework specifically addressing violence and harassment. The framework must include measures to prevent violence against women and girls, set out the preventative duties employers must follow, and describe monitoring and enforcement approaches.
The HSE must consult and work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and law enforcement when preparing and revising the framework and is separately required to issue employer guidance on topics such as confidential reporting mechanisms, risk assessments, incident reporting, and workplace accommodations for victims.The bill comes into force on enactment and extends to England, Wales and Scotland. It therefore integrates these new obligations into employers’ existing health and safety responsibilities without creating new criminal offences or specifying civil penalties in the text of the bill itself; instead, it signals that the HSE’s forthcoming framework will describe monitoring and enforcement.
That combination — statutory duty plus delegated framework and guidance — leaves implementation details to regulators and practitioners to define once the HSE sets standards.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds a new subsection (2)(f) to section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, listing specific categories of violence and harassment employers must guard against (including gender-based violence, sexual harassment, psychological abuse, stalking and online harassment).
It creates an explicit statutory duty for employers to prepare and periodically revise a written risk assessment for violence and harassment and to implement policies and procedures to eliminate those risks 'so far as is reasonably practicable'.
Employers must provide training to all employees on recognising and preventing violence and harassment; the bill mandates a defined 'gender-responsive approach' for that training and policy design.
The HSE must publish a dedicated health and safety framework on workplace violence and harassment, including provisions on preventing violence against women and girls and on monitoring and enforcement, developed in consultation with the EHRC and law enforcement.
The statutory scope is broad: 'persons working in the workplace' explicitly includes full- and part-time staff, temporary workers, interns, volunteers and job applicants, and the workplace definition expressly covers remote and hybrid environments.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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New employer duty to prevent violence and harassment
This provision inserts subsection (2)(f) into section 2, itemising the categories of conduct employers must prevent (gender-based violence, sexual harassment, psychological abuse, physical/sexual abuse, stalking including online harassment, and threats). It then adds duties (3A) and (3B) requiring written risk assessments and staff training respectively, with (3C) defining 'gender-responsive' and (3D)/(3E) expanding who and what counts as the workplace. Practically, employers will need to fold these requirements into their existing health and safety management systems and record assessments and training to show compliance.
HSE duty to publish a violence and harassment framework
The bill creates a new duty (11ZA) on the Health and Safety Executive to develop and publish a framework addressing workplace violence and harassment and to revise it as appropriate. The framework must include specific measures targeting violence against women and girls, set out employer preventative duties, and explain monitoring and enforcement approaches. Because the bill asks the HSE to work with the EHRC and law enforcement, the framework is intended to coordinate safety, equality and criminal justice responses — but the bill leaves the scope of enforcement powers and sanctioning mechanisms for the HSE to define in the framework.
HSE guidance for employers on protections and reporting
Section 11ZB obliges the HSE to issue guidance, developed in consultation with relevant parties, covering implementation of workplace policies, confidential reporting mechanisms, conducting risk assessments consistent with the framework, reporting and addressing incidents, and workplace accommodations for victims. This guidance will be the principal source of practical detail for employers (for example, model reporting pathways and reasonable accommodations) because the bill itself does not set operational standards or training specifications.
Extent, commencement and short title
This brief provision specifies that the amendments apply in England, Wales and Scotland, commence on the day the Act is passed, and set the short title. Notably, Northern Ireland is excluded from the territorial extent, so employers and regulators there would not be bound by these changes unless corresponding measures are adopted locally.
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Explore Employment in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Women and girls in the workplace — the statutory framing and the HSE framework specifically target prevention of violence and harassment against them, increasing the likelihood of tailored policies, training and monitoring.
- Workers in remote and hybrid roles — the bill explicitly brings remote/hybrid work within employer duties, requiring risk assessments and measures that cover online harassment and off-site threats.
- Victims and prospective victims — the requirement for confidential reporting mechanisms and workplace accommodations (set out in HSE guidance) aims to improve access to support and reduce barriers to reporting incidents.
- Equality and human rights bodies — the EHRC’s mandated involvement creates opportunities for coordinated guidance and enforcement that align health and safety and equality protections.
Who Bears the Cost
- Employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — must draft and revise assessments, implement policies, supply training for all staff, and set up reporting and accommodation processes, which will generate direct costs and administrative burdens.
- The Health and Safety Executive — the HSE must design, publish and periodically revise a comprehensive framework and employer guidance, which will require staff time, new expertise on gendered violence, and ongoing engagement with partners.
- Human resources and recruiting teams — extending duties to applicants and volunteers will require changes to recruitment processes, pre-employment communications and potentially additional vetting or support measures.
- Law enforcement and occupational health providers — the bill anticipates closer operational links (through consultation and reporting expectations) which may increase referrals and demand for coordinated responses.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between placing a clear, proactive duty on employers to prevent violence and harassment (including gendered violence) — which benefits victims but demands operational change — and leaving key choices about standards, enforcement and practical measures to the HSE, creating transitional uncertainty and potentially uneven compliance across sectors and employer sizes.
The bill creates a statutory duty to prevent violence and harassment and places the HSE at the centre of standard-setting, but it leaves major implementation choices to the regulator. The text requires risk assessments and training yet sets no minimum standards, curricula, frequencies, or certification requirements.
That means considerable variation is possible between employers and sectors until the HSE publishes a detailed framework and guidance.
Enforcement is another open question. The bill requires the framework to address monitoring and enforcement, but it does not itself create new criminal offences or specify civil sanctions or inspection powers tied to these particular duties.
That ambiguity raises practical enforcement questions: will breaches be enforced through existing HSE powers under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, through equality law mechanisms, or through a mix of regulatory and administrative actions? Finally, the requirement for confidential reporting and workplace accommodations intersects with data protection, safeguarding and employment law; employers will need detailed operational guidance to avoid inconsistent practices or inadvertent legal exposure.
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