Yes, says Parliament's Women and Equalities Committee in their report investigating sexual harassment in the workplace.

According to the report, employers and regulators are failing to address sexual harassment in the workplace with sufficient rigour. The committee believes there should be mandatory requirements, sanctions for breaches and proactive enforcement such as those that exist for data protection and money laundering.

The committee is urging the government to put sexual harassment on the top of the agenda and highlights five key priorities to change workplace cultures and attitudes.

• The introduction of a duty on employers to prevent harassment, with the same legal protections for interns and volunteers as other workers.

• Regulators to take a more active role in addressing sexual harassment in their sectors and to set out the sanctions for perpetrators of sexual harassment in their sectors.

• The introduction of a statutory code of practice on sexual harassment, setting out what employers should do to tackle sexual harassment.

• Extending the time limit for bringing a sexual harassment claim to six months, with the time being stopped while internal processes and investigations are undertaken.

• More regulation to ensure that non-disclosure agreements are not misused and don't prevent victims from reporting sexual harassment. Instead, the committee recommends the introduction of standard form confidentiality clauses.

• Collecting robust data and statistics, in order to determine the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment in the workplace.

It remains to be seen which of the recommendations the Government will pursue. In the meantime, Watford employers should ensure existing policies - staff codes of conduct, equal opportunities and dignity and work policies - are up to date and consider training for staff to raise awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment.

- Michael Delaney is an employment law partner at award-winning law firm VWV, with offices on Clarendon Road, Watford.