New UK research: why "tick-box" harassment prevention fails — and what it means for Australian PCBUs

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission published a rapid evidence review on 21 July 2026 examining what actually prevents workplace harassment. Its central finding: employers who rely on policies and training alone, without consistent implementation and genuine review, are not meeting an evidence-based standard of prevention. Low reporting rates, the review found, are as likely to signal a culture where people do not feel safe to report as they are to signal an absence of harm. The review was conducted to support the UK's Worker Protection (Amendment of the Equality Act 2010) Act, which has placed a positive legal duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment since October 2024. That duty mirrors the logic Australian regulators have been applying to psychosocial hazards since 2022: a policy sitting in a drawer is not a control. WorkSafe Victoria, SafeWork NSW and Comcare have all made the same point in guidance and enforcement commentary, that PCBUs need active, reviewed, evidence-based measures, not a document that exists to be produced if an inspector asks. For Australian WHS practitioners, this UK research is useful less as a legal citation and more as a comparator argument. When a client asks why their existing anti-harassment policy is not enough, the answer is no longer just "the regulator expects more." It is that the same conclusion is being reached independently, in a comparable jurisdiction, by researchers with no stake in Australian WHS enforcement. The practical test for any harassment or bullying control is not whether a policy exists, but whether it is implemented consistently, reviewed on a set cycle, backed by training that addresses the actual causes in that workplace, and paired with a reporting system people trust enough to use.