Member

I want to answer two quick points. One is on third-party harassment. Currently Clause 20 will introduce an obligation under the Equality Act 2010 on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties in the course of the employment. The other is on sexual harassment. We are supporting effective implementation of the new duty under the Equality Act 2010 on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. As I said earlier, that came into force on 26 October. Given the adequacy of the protections provided by existing legislation, I therefore respectfully ask the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, to withdraw Amendment 47.