Legal and Professional Framework

Preventing bullying and harassment is required by UK employment and equality law and built into professional standards. Optical practices must align their policies, training, and investigations with these rules, while keeping matters confidential and fair for everyone involved. ^[1][2][4]

Key legal sources and what they mean in practice

• Equality Act 2010: bans harassment linked to protected characteristics (such as age, disability, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation). Harassment is any unwanted behaviour that undermines dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. Employers are legally responsible unless they can show they took reasonable steps to prevent it. ^[1]
• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: requires employers to protect staff health, safety, and welfare as far as reasonably practicable. This includes tackling bullying and other psychosocial risks. ^[2]
• Protection from Harassment Act 1997: covers repeated behaviour that causes alarm or distress; relevant to serious or persistent bullying, even outside work. ^[3]
• GOC Standards of Practice: expect registrants to treat colleagues with respect, challenge poor behaviour, and escalate concerns if patient or staff safety is at risk. Breaches may lead to fitness-to-practise action. ^[4]

Professional accountability and fair process

Policies should clearly define bullying, harassment, victimisation, and malicious complaints, and set out fair, proportionate steps for complaints, investigations, and appeals. ^[5]

Confidentiality is essential. Information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis to protect dignity and the integrity of the process.

^[6]

Procedures should guard against retaliation and provide support for all involved (for example, access to occupational health or temporary rota changes). ^[5][7]

Practical implications for optical providers

• Prevention: publish clear policies, cover them in induction, refresh regularly, and make reporting routes obvious (with anonymous options if possible). ^[5][4]
• Manager skills: ensure line managers are trained to listen, assess risk (especially in cases of sexual harassment), preserve evidence (e.g. screenshots, messages), and point staff to support. ^[5][7]
• Records: keep clear notes showing who raised the concern, when it was raised, actions taken, and why. Apply data protection to sensitive HR files. ^[5][6]

Following the law goes hand in hand with culture. Practices that train staff, monitor behaviour, and step in early both reduce legal risk and create the conditions for safe, respectful care. ^[7][8]

References (numbered in text) Why we include references

1. Equality Act 2010, UK Public General Acts (legislation.gov.uk) Find (opens in a new tab)
2. Tackling work-related stress using the Management Standards approach, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), March 2019 Find (opens in a new tab)
3. Protection from Harassment Act 1997, UK Public General Acts (legislation.gov.uk) Find (opens in a new tab)
4. Standards of practice for optometrists and dispensing opticians (effective from 1 January 2025), General Optical Council Find (opens in a new tab)
5. Conducting workplace investigations, Acas (June 2019) Find (opens in a new tab)
6. Employment practices and data protection: keeping employment records, Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Find (opens in a new tab)
7. Bunce A, Hashemi L, Clark C, Stansfeld S, Myers C-A, McManus S. Prevalence and nature of workplace bullying and harassment and associations with mental health conditions in England: a cross-sectional probability sample survey. BMC Public Health (2024) Find (opens in a new tab)
8. Verkuil B, Atasayi S, Molendijk ML. Workplace Bullying and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data. PLoS One (2015) Find (opens in a new tab)