The government has two live timetables for the Employment Rights Act, updated five days before a sexual harassment power takes effect. They give that power two different start dates, a year apart.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
In short. This site found on 21 October 2026 that the Department for Business and Trade's implementation roadmap wrongly listed a sexual harassment regulation-making power as a "2027" measure, a year after the commencement regulations that actually bring it into force on 30 October 2026 [1]. Eleven days on, the roadmap still says 2027 [2]. But a second document on the same gov.uk publication page, the department's "timeline update", was itself updated on 22 October 2026 and now places the identical power correctly, under "Measures that will take effect on 30 October 2026" [3]. The department's own two documents now contradict each other, five days before the power becomes law. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
On 21 October 2026, this site tested the Department for Business and Trade's "Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: roadmap" against the commencement regulations for the Employment Rights Act 2025's sexual harassment provisions [4]. The roadmap, republished on 14 October 2026, grouped "introducing a power to enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as 'reasonable', to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment" under "Measures that will take effect in 2027" [2]. That is the power created by section 22 of the Act, inserting new section 40B into the Equality Act 2010 [5]. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, made 1 October 2026, bring that power into force on 30 October 2026, not in 2027 [1].
Checked again today, the roadmap has not moved. It still lists the same power under the same wrong year [2].
A second document, updated this week, gets it right
The roadmap is not the only timetable the department publishes on this subject. The same gov.uk publication, "Implementing the Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act", also hosts a separate document, "Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update" [3]. Its own text describes its purpose plainly: "To give workers, employers, and businesses confidence about the changes, this document sets out which measures have been introduced, and provides the latest timetable for measures expected to be introduced over the next two years" [3].
The publication's own change log records that this document was "updated with further detail on commencement dates for 2027 measures" on 22 October 2026 [6]. In doing so, it lists, under "Measures that will take effect on 30 October 2026", alongside the trade union and harassment measures already confirmed for that date: "introducing a power that will enable the minister to make regulations at a later date, specifying evidence-based steps which employers must take to prevent sexual harassment (this will complement, not replace, the broader legislative requirement to take all reasonable steps)" [3]. That is section 22 and section 40B again, described in different words, dated correctly this time.
The same change log entry shows the roadmap was last touched on 14 October 2026, "published for accessibility reasons", eight days before the timeline update's own 22 October revision [6]. Whoever updated the timeline update with the correct October 2026 date did not carry the fix across to the roadmap sitting on the same page.
Two documents, no cross-check
Neither document refers to the other. The roadmap presents itself as the implementation plan; the timeline update presents itself as the "latest timetable" [3]. A reader who opens the roadmap first, which is the document this site's earlier piece found circulating in press coverage of the Act under its original July 2025 title, has no signpost telling them a more current, and in this instance more accurate, version of the same fact sits one click away on the same gov.uk page [2] [6].
The claims, tested
| The department's own statement | What we found, checked 25 October 2026 | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The roadmap: the section 22/40B power is listed under "Measures that will take effect in 2027" [2] | Unchanged since this site flagged it on 21 October 2026; still wrong by a year against S.I. 2026/1065 [1] | The error survives four days after publication and five days before the power takes effect |
| The timeline update, the document the department calls its "latest timetable" and updated 22 October 2026, places the identical power under "Measures that will take effect on 30 October 2026" [3] | The roadmap, on the same publication page, still says 2027 for the same power [2] | The department's own two documents on its own page now contradict each other |
Credit where due
The timeline update itself is not the problem here; it is the fix, or at least half of one. Someone updated it on 22 October 2026 with the correct commencement date for this exact power, five days before it takes effect, which is the kind of change this site asked for on 21 October [3]. The department also keeps a visible, dated change log on the publication page, naming exactly what changed and when, which is more transparency than many comparable gov.uk pages offer [6]. The gap this piece documents is narrow: the correction did not reach the second document carrying the same fact.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. The correct date for this power now exists in writing on a government webpage, which the 21 October teardown could not say. But the roadmap, the document most likely to be the one an employer or adviser finds and quotes, still carries the wrong one, unchanged since this site flagged it and due to be proven wrong by the statute book in five days.
The star score counts two documented mistakes: (1) the Department for Business and Trade's implementation roadmap, republished 14 October 2026, still lists the section 22/40B "reasonable steps" regulation-making power as a measure taking effect "in 2027", unchanged since this site's 21 October 2026 teardown found the same error against S.I. 2026/1065, which brings the power into force on 30 October 2026; (2) the department's own "timeline update" document, on the same gov.uk publication page and updated 22 October 2026 with the correct October 2026 date for the same power, was not used to correct the roadmap, leaving the department's own two documents in direct contradiction. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This is a diff entry against this site's 21 October 2026 teardown, not a retraction of it; that piece's finding, that the roadmap misdated the power by a year, is restated and reconfirmed above, not withdrawn. Checked directly against the roadmap, the timeline update, the publication's own change log and S.I. 2026/1065, all fetched 25 October 2026.
Sources
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/1065 (made 1 October 2026). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/1065/made
- Department for Business and Trade, "Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: roadmap (web version)" (republished 14 October 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act/implementing-the-employment-rights-bill-roadmap-web-version
- Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, "Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update" (updated 22 October 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act/plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act-timeline-update
- "Employers across Great Britain face a tougher duty to stop sexual harassment, including by customers and clients, from 30 October. The power to define what counts as 'reasonable steps' exists in law from that date, a year earlier than the government's roadmap says.", Tracked Changes, 21 October 2026
- Employment Rights Act 2025, section 22, legislation.gov.uk (checked 25 October 2026). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/36/section/22
- GOV.UK, "Implementing the Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act" (publication page, change log, first published 3 February 2026, last updated 22 October 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act