Sexual Harassment in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Smith v Gardner Merchant Ltd
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 14 July 1998

    Where they had gone wrong was in failing to notice that a material part of the campaign against the applicant consisted of sexual harassment, a particularly degrading and unacceptable form of treatment which it must be taken to have been the intention of Parliament to restrain.

    In the case of a male victim, the question is whether he was treated in the way he was because he was male, not because he was a male with a particular sexual inclination. Nor in deciding that question is it a material consideration that a female with similar or any other sexual inclinations would have been treated in the same way if she would not, as a female, to have been so treated in any circumstances.

  • English v Thomas Sanderson Blinds Ltd
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 19 December 2008

    In my judgment harassment is perpetrated on grounds of sexual orientation only where some person or persons' actual, perceived, or assumed sexual orientation gives rise to it, that is, is a substantial cause of it. On the facts the reason for the harassment was nothing to do with anyone's actual, perceived, or assumed sexual orientation. It happened to take the form of “homophobic banter” so called, which was thus the vehicle for teasing or tormenting the appellant.

    If, as is common ground, tormenting a man who is believed to be gay but is not amounts to unlawful harassment, the distance from there to tormenting a man who is being treated as if he were gay when he is not is barely perceptible. In both cases the man's sexual orientation, in both cases imaginary, is the basis – that is to say, the ground —of the harassment.

  • MacDonald v Ministry of Defence
    • House of Lords
    • 19 June 2003

    Viewed in the broadest terms, the Burton decision has much to commend it. In making this comparison acts of persons for whose conduct an employer is vicariously responsible are to be attributed to the employer. It is otherwise in respect of acts of third parties for whose conduct the employer is not vicariously liable.

  • Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No.2)
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 20 December 2002

    This is the first time for many years that the Court of Appeal has had the opportunity to consider the appropriate level of compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination cases. Some decisions in the Employment Tribunal and in the Appeal Tribunal have resulted in awards of substantial sums for injury to feelings, sometimes supplemented by compensation for psychiatric damage and aggravated damages.

  • Glasgow City Council v Zafar (No.2)
    • House of Lords
    • 27 November 1997

    If he is not a reasonable employer he might well have treated another employee in just the same unsatisfactory way as he treated the complainant in which case he would not have treated the complainant "less favourably" for the purposes of the Act of 1976. The fact that, for the purposes of the law of unfair dismissal, an employer has acted unreasonably casts no light whatsoever on the question whether he has treated the employee "less favourably" for the purposes of the Act of 1976.

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Legislation
  • Scottish Parliamentary Standards (Sexual Harassment and Complaints Process) Act 2021
    • Scotland
    • January 01, 2021
  • Serious Crime Act 2015
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 2015
    ... ... Act 2009, section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the Street Offences Act 1959, the Female Genital ... (c) any civil remedies under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; ... (d) any right to an occupation order or a non-molestation ... ...
  • Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018
    • Scotland
    • January 01, 2018
    ... ... ) (a) in paragraph (a) , the reference to violent behaviour includes sexual violence as well as physical violence,(b) in paragraph (b) , the reference ... ,victim safety in relation to sentencing,consideration of non-harassment order ... (2) In this section (together with the schedule) , the 1995 ... ...
  • Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 2014
    ... ... Responsibility Act 2011; to make provision about firearms, about sexual harm and violence and about forced marriage; to make provision about the ... ” means—(a) conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person,(b) conduct capable of causing nuisance ... ...
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Books & Journal Articles
  • Criminalising Sexual Harassment
    • No. 81-5, October 2017
    • Journal of Criminal Law, The
    The article explores the differences between sexual behavior in the workplace and in the public domain. Arguments against criminalising sexual harassment because of incompatibility with the princip...
  • Sexual Harassment Law in Israel*
    • No. 7-1-4, September 2005
    • International Journal of Discrimination and the Law
  • Sexual Harassment Law in France
    • No. 7-1-4, September 2005
    • International Journal of Discrimination and the Law
  • Sexual Harassment Laws in Canada
    • No. 7-1-4, September 2005
    • International Journal of Discrimination and the Law
    This paper analyses the law of sexual harassment in Canada, including the notion of the ‘reasonable woman’, indicating a broad legislative coverage. However, despite the recognition of a clear huma...
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Law Firm Commentaries
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Forms
  • Provide supplemental information when making or responding to allegations of harm and domestic violence
    • HM Courts & Tribunals Service court and tribunal forms
    Standard directions forms under the Children Act.
    ... ... sexual, fnancial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate ... from further conduct which causes harassment or will ... cause a fear of violence ... These notes are only a guide to ... ...
  • Ask the court to make a non-molestation order or an occupation order
    • HM Courts & Tribunals Service court and tribunal forms
    Family forms including the form to apply for a non-molestation order or an occupation order (Form FL401).
    ... ... physical and, in relation to a child, includes sexual abuse. The ... court will require evidence of any harm which you allege in ... of harassment. The court can forbid particular acts of the ... respondent, molestation ... ...
  • T420)
    • HM Courts & Tribunals Service court and tribunal forms
    Includes the refund form for claimants.
    ... ... partnership, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, sexual ... orientation, religion or belief, age, or for a reason related to a ... a review panel to deal with equal opportunities, harassment and grievances. If the employer ... fails to comply with the ... ...
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