Employment in the news | September 2025

The EHRC has made enforcement of the new preventative duty on sexual harassment a strategic priority. A key part of this work involves voluntary agreements with organisations to help them improve their approach.

On 21 August 2025, the EHRC announced a legal agreement with Lidl GB. Under the agreement, Lidl committed to strengthening its approach to prevention, including conducting staff surveys, monitoring formal and informal complaints, reviewing a sample of complaints to assess trends and risks, and discussing the issue with its DE&I groups. The EHRC’s view is that unless employers understand the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace and carry out risk assessments, they won’t be able to identify or implement reasonable steps to prevent it.

Separately, the EHRC submitted its revised statutory Code of Practice on services, public functions and associations to the government for approval. While primarily aimed at service providers, the updated Code will include revised guidance on single-sex services and facilities, which will be of interest to employers. The Code will reflect the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers, clarifying that under the Equality Act, “sex” means biological sex.

Next steps

• Review your understanding of the risks and extent of sexual harassment within your organisation if necessary, and update risk assessments accordingly.
• The text of the updated Code of Practice isn’t available yet, so monitor for publication, particularly the guidance on single-sex facilities within the workplace.

Section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 takes effect on 1 October. From that date, confidentiality agreements will be void if they prevent a victim of crime (or someone who reasonably believes they are a victim of crime) making permitted disclosures about the relevant conduct.

Victims can make disclosures to law enforcement bodies, regulators, qualified lawyers, regulated professions (for example, medical professionals), victim support services, immediate relatives or the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). The disclosure’s purpose must be to allow the recipient to take appropriate action, or to enable the victim to seek legal advice, obtain support, or claim compensation. An NDA will still be effective to prevent a disclosure whose primary purpose is releasing information into the public domain.

Next steps

• NDAs should already carve out disclosures to the relevant groups (apart from CICA) for regulatory and reputational reasons.
• Employers should nonetheless review template contracts or settlement agreements to check that NDAs reflect the new requirements.
• The Employment Rights Bill will prevent employers using NDAs in relation to allegations of harassment or victimisation, although the timescale for this isn’t clear.

The government published detailed technical guidance on neonatal care leave and pay in August. Although the guidance isn’t surprising, neonatal care leave and pay is complex, and the additional information is helpful. It covers issues such as:

• Whether outpatient care received after a baby is discharged from hospital counts as neonatal care;
• How neonatal care leave accrues in multiple birth situations where babies are in hospital for different periods or at separate times;
• What happens if a baby is discharged from care but re-admitted; and
• Pay and leave entitlements if a period of neonatal care leave is interrupted by another period of leave, such as statutory paternity leave.

Next steps

• Review your neonatal care leave policy to ensure it’s consistent with the technical guidance.
• Remind yourself of the intricacies of neonatal care leave by watching our Employment Bite.