Workplace Harassment Statistics UK: 2026 Facts, Data & Key Insights

Workplace harassment is a legal concept with significant practical consequences — for the individuals who experience it, for the organisations responsible for preventing it, and for the broader culture of work in the United Kingdom. It is legally distinct from — though closely related to — workplace bullying, and the legislative landscape around it has changed significantly since 2023. This guide brings together data from CIPD, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Deloitte, and the Worker Protection Act 2023 to provide the most comprehensive UK workplace harassment statistics reference available.

Key Facts & Figures (Overview)

What Is Workplace Harassment Under UK Law?

Workplace harassment has a specific legal definition under the Equality Act 2010: it is unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic — race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, or marriage and civil partnership — that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment.

A second form of harassment under the Act occurs when someone is treated less favourably because they have submitted to, or rejected, such conduct. This captures the specific dynamics of sexual harassment where a victim’s career is affected by their response to advances.

This is legally distinct from workplace bullying — which is addressed in our workplace bullying statistics guide — in that harassment requires a connection to a protected characteristic, while bullying does not. In practice, the two frequently overlap and occur simultaneously.

The Scale of Workplace Harassment in the UK

CIPD’s 2024 survey — the most comprehensive recent source of UK workplace harassment data — found that 4% of UK workers had been sexually harassed at work in the last three years, and 8% had experienced other forms of harassment. Combined with the 15% who experienced workplace bullying, the data suggests that nearly 1 in 4 workers has experienced some form of serious inappropriate behaviour in the last three years.

These figures should be treated as underestimates. The CIPD survey captures only experiences that respondents both recall and are willing to disclose in a survey context — and harassment is a domain where under-disclosure is widespread. More than half (53%) of employees who experienced harassment did not report the most recent incident to their employer, citing fear of not being believed, fear of retaliation, belief that nothing would change, and embarrassment.

The disconnect between employer and employee perspectives is consistent and striking. While 81% of employers believe they are doing enough to address harassment, only 36% of employees who experienced conflict feel it was fully resolved. This gap suggests a widespread pattern of organisations prioritising the appearance of addressing harassment over the substance of doing so.

The October 2024 Legal Duty: What Changed?

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 represents the most significant legislative development in UK workplace harassment law in years. It came into force on 26 October 2024 and introduced a new proactive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment before it occurs — rather than simply responding to complaints after the fact.

Under the previous framework, employers could use the “statutory defence” if they had taken steps to prevent harassment — but only after an incident had occurred. Under the new duty, prevention is the primary obligation. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published statutory guidance and enforcement powers to support the new duty.

The practical consequences for non-compliance are significant: employment tribunals can award up to 25% additional compensation — on top of the underlying award — where an employer is found to have failed to take reasonable steps. For high-value cases involving career damage, this can be substantial.

NDAs, Transparency, and the July 2025 Reform

In July 2025, the government announced legislation to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements to cover up workplace harassment, discrimination, and bullying. This reform was strongly advocated by employment lawyers and campaigners who had long argued that NDAs had enabled serial harassers to move between organisations without consequence, by preventing victims from disclosing their experiences to future employers or recruiters.

The reform is expected to create greater accountability and — over time — cultural change, as organisations can no longer rely on financial settlements accompanied by gagging clauses to manage their harassment records invisibly.

Expanding Regulatory Oversight

From September 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will require around 37,000 regulated firms to report serious non-financial misconduct including bullying and harassment as part of their regulatory submissions. This represents an important shift — treating culture and conduct not as “soft” HR matters but as material regulatory concerns affecting market integrity and firm risk.

The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) has already introduced sector-specific behaviour guidelines, reporting mechanisms, and independent oversight for film, television, theatre, and music — industries that have been particularly affected by high-profile harassment cases in recent years.

The Mental Health Impact of Workplace Harassment

The mental health consequences of workplace harassment are severe and well documented. Harassment is associated with significantly elevated rates of clinical anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation — often more severe than those associated with non-discriminatory bullying, because harassment carries the additional dimension of targeting a fundamental aspect of a person’s identity.

Deloitte’s 2024 research found that 40% of disabled employees or those with chronic health conditions had experienced bullying or harassment at work — with many also reporting missed promotions and having their competence questioned. The intersection of harassment with disability discrimination creates compound mental health harm that frequently goes unaddressed.

The broader connections are to the workplace mental health statistics picture: work-related stress, depression and anxiety now account for 52% of all work-related ill health in Great Britain, resulting in 22.1 million lost working days in 2024/25 (HSE). Harassment is explicitly identified by the HSE as a contributing factor.

Our Mental Health First Aid courses help organisations build the management skills and psychological safety needed to address harassment effectively.

Sources & References

Written by Mental Health Experts. This guide was produced by the team at Mental Health First Aid Course, to help HR professionals, managers, and safety leads understand the current legal landscape and the mental health consequences of workplace harassment.