Red Flag Weekly Edition 7

Workplace safety intelligence for employers.

Workplace violence intelligence for safety professionals.

Three-Year High.

Her senior manager left flowers in her home, bombarded her with messages, and

Since 1 April 2026, sex-based harassment in a public place including the workplace is a

Launches National Action Plan.

He followed her from a garage to a shop. He got into her car uninvited. He threw rocks

One in Seven NHS Staff Physically Attacked Last Year.

Three-Year High.

Nearly one in seven NHS staff was physically attacked by a patient or member of the public in 2025. That is the highest rate in three years and ambulance workers are bearing the worst of it. The 2025 NHS Staff Survey, based on responses from around 800,000 NHS workers, found that 14.47% reported being physically attacked in the past year, the highest figure for three years. Among ambulance staff, almost 31% reported unwanted sexual behaviour from patients or the public. Nearly 10% of NHS staff reported discrimination from patients, also a record high. Danny Mortimer, Director General for People at NHS England, described the findings as deeply worrying and called for urgent improvements. The survey also recorded a drop in staff morale, with fewer workers recommending their organisation as a place to work or receive treatment.

One in seven. Every year. When I deliver training to NHS community teams, the pattern I hear most consistently is that staff have normalised it. They expect it. They minimise it. That normalisation is not resilience. It is a systemic failure being absorbed by individuals who should be protected by their employer. The survey data is the evidence. October 2026 is the prompt. The question is whether organisations will act before a tribunal forces them to.

What employers should do now

• Review the risk in the context of the role.
• Check staff have clear reporting and escalation routes.
• Use practical training based on what staff actually face.

KJ v British Council [2026] EAT 46: The Internal Investigation That Cost a Man His OBE

Her senior manager left flowers in her home, bombarded her with messages, and

stalked her relentlessly. The internal investigation said she had encouraged him. The Employment Appeal Tribunal called that finding inexplicable. The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled in February 2026 that the British Council was vicariously liable for the sexual harassment and stalking of an employee, KJ, by her senior manager Tony Reilly while she was posted to Morocco. Reilly bombarded her with gifts and messages declaring his love and entered her home to leave flowers. The internal investigation found no unwanted sexual advances, blamed KJ for encouraging the behaviour, and prioritised Reilly's wellbeing over hers. The EAT described the British Council as fundamentally deceptive and dismissed its cross-appeal. In March 2026, King Charles stripped Reilly of his OBE due to professional censure. Compensation is yet to be determined.

The tribunal's words are the ones every HR director needs to read. Fundamentally deceptive. The investigation implied that a woman who had flirted at one point in time had consented to be harassed and stalked indefinitely thereafter. That reasoning did not survive scrutiny. Under the Worker Protection Act 2023, your internal investigation process is now part of your legal defence. If it prioritises the alleged perpetrator's position over the victim's safety, you are already in the wrong place before a tribunal has asked its first question.

What employers should do now

• Review the risk in the context of the role.
• Check staff have clear reporting and escalation routes.
• Use practical training based on what staff actually face.

New Criminal Law in Force Since April: Sex-Based Harassment in the Workplace Is Now a Criminal Offence

Since 1 April 2026, sex-based harassment in a public place including the workplace is a

criminal offence carrying up to two years imprisonment. Most employers have not briefed their staff. The Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023 came into force on 1 April 2026, inserting a new section 4B into the Public Order Act 1986. The offence covers intentional harassment, alarm, or distress caused because of a person's actual or presumed sex. It applies in public and private places including the workplace. A service user, tenant, patient, or member of the public who subjects a lone worker to sex-based threatening or abusive behaviour could now be committing a criminal offence. Most lone worker briefings across social care, housing, and healthcare have not been updated to reflect this change.

This law came into force two months ago. In every sector I work with, housing, healthcare, and social care, most lone worker briefings have not been updated. A service user or tenant who subjects a lone female worker to sex-based threatening behaviour in a communal area or office could now be committing a criminal offence. That changes the conversation your staff can have with police when they report. The question is whether they know that. And whether their employer has told them.

What employers should do now

• Review the risk in the context of the role.
• Check staff have clear reporting and escalation routes.
• Use practical training based on what staff actually face.

Stalking Prosecutions Up 185% in Four Years. CPS

Launches National Action Plan.

Stalking prosecutions have risen from 2,512 in 2020/21 to 7,168 in 2024/25. The CPS has launched a new four-year action plan and warns that young people may not recognise they are being stalked. The Crown Prosecution Service published its Stalking Action Plan 2026 to 2030 in March 2026, following a record year of prosecutions. Charges reached 7,168 in 2024/25, up from 2,512 in 2020/21, a rise of 185% in four years. The CPS warns that digital stalking is blurring the boundaries of what constitutes the offence and that young people may not recognise that persistent unwanted contact, monitoring, or following constitutes stalking. The action plan commits to improved support for victims, stronger guidance on digital evidence, and closer working with police. For frontline lone workers in housing, healthcare, and social care, a service user who repeatedly contacts, follows, or monitors a worker may already be committing a criminal offence.

The 185% rise in stalking prosecutions over four years is not primarily a sign that stalking has increased. It is a sign that we are finally taking it seriously. But for lone workers in community roles, the risk has always been there. Housing officers, community nurses, and social workers are followed home, traced on social media, and contacted persistently more often than most employers know, because most of those incidents are never reported. The first question is whether your staff know what stalking looks like in its early stages. The second is whether they know they can report it.

What employers should do now

• Review the risk in the context of the role.
• Check staff have clear reporting and escalation routes.
• Use practical training based on what staff actually face.

Man Jailed for Stalking: Followed Her to a Shop, Got Into Her Car, Threw Rocks at Her Home

He followed her from a garage to a shop. He got into her car uninvited. He threw rocks

at her home. While in custody he threatened and racially harassed a detention officer. Sentenced to two years and eight months this week. On 28 May 2026, Mohammed Qasim Ali was sentenced to two years and eight months at Stafford Crown Court for stalking a woman over more than a year in Burton-upon-Trent. Ali followed the victim from a petrol station to a shop, got into her vehicle uninvited, attended her home address, threw rocks at the property, and subjected her to a sustained campaign of unwanted contact. Whilst remanded in custody, he threatened and racially harassed a custody detention officer in the performance of their duty. The case was investigated by Staffordshire Police and the sentence includes the aggravating factor of offending committed whilst in a position to cause harm to a public servant.

Two points from this case. The first is the trajectory: it started with following and escalated to attending her home. That is the pattern lone workers in community roles describe, and it is the pattern that gets minimised at every stage because each individual incident seems manageable on its own. The second is that the custody detention officer was threatened and racially harassed while doing their job. That was treated as a separate offence and it was right that it was. Every employer in a public-facing sector should be asking whether their staff know they have the same right to report.

What employers should do now

• Review the risk in the context of the role.
• Check staff have clear reporting and escalation routes.
• Use practical training based on what staff actually face.

October 2026 is approaching. Employers need evidence of all reasonable steps.

The consistent theme across Red Flag Weekly is foreseeable risk. Where staff engage with the public, lone work, visit homes, answer challenging calls or manage difficult behaviour, employers need practical evidence that staff were prepared for what they actually face.

• Policies should be clear, current and role-specific.
• Training should cover real scenarios, not generic awareness alone.
• Incident reporting should be straightforward and trusted.
• Managers should be able to evidence action taken before and after incidents.

The safest position is to prepare now, not wait for further guidance.

Training Built Around What Your Staff Actually Face

Safety Solutions Training Ltd delivers practical, role-specific training across the NHS, social care, housing, local authority and third sector.

Role-specific. Practical. Defensible.