Fewer UK-owned global companies will proclaim their commitment to DEI because of how that might impact their position in the US, an employment law firm has claimed, as the hostility towards such schemes continues to grow across the Atlantic.

UK law firm GQ Littler has conducted research into levels of concern over the future of corporate DEI which found that despite most (74%) US federal contractors had increasing worries about DEI-related lawsuits, enforcement actions and shareholder proposals, only 8% of company executives surveyed said they were seriously considering DEI programme changes because of President Trump’s executive orders.

Natasha Adom, partner at GQ Littler, said she did not expect UK companies to engage in an aggressive reversal of DEI policies because of legal risks. But she added: “What we are expecting is that fewer UK-owned global companies will make powerful sweeping statements about their commitment to DEI because of how that might impact their position in the US.

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“We have already started to see some multinational companies pull back DEI initiatives in the US while simultaneously reinforcing their commitments in the UK and elsewhere and we expect that trend to continue.”

There was also a risk that some employees could change their behaviour at work because of news reports from the US. Adom said: “One area of concern for employers is that the rollback of DEI in the US may embolden employees who hold anti-DEI views to express them in a very outspoken way and in a way that crosses the line into discrimination.”

The survey found that 61% of executives at large US companies anticipated decreased DEI commitments because of Trump’s anti-DEI policies and rhetoric.

Half (52%) of US organisations looking to downsize DEI were considering whether to remove their DEI benchmarks and/or metrics. These risked coming across as quotas to federal agencies “focusing in on potentially exclusionary or discriminatory practices”.

Nearly half (42%) of those US company executives surveyed stated that DEI commitment decreases were because of litigation fears, such as discrimination lawsuits.

Adom said: “Employers that don’t provide DEI training in the UK will find it harder to defend discrimination claims and the new duty on all UK employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment will nearly always include providing anti-harassment training.”

“UK employers who stop tracking diversity metrics risk non-compliance, as legal reporting requirements are expected to expand in the UK. For example, listed companies already report on their board diversity and under government proposals large companies – with over 250 employees – will be required to publish gender pay gap action plans and report ethnicity pay gaps.”

GQ Littler’s US survey of 700 employers showed that large corporations were twice as likely than smaller companies to be considering changing their DEI policies.

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