Lone Working: Employer Responsibilities and Risk Assessments

Employers have a legal duty under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to assess and manage risks to lone workers. You must consider how working alone could increase the risks and put suitable measures in place to protect workers’ health, safety and welfare.

Your responsibilities are not limited to employees. You must also consider people affected by your activities, including contractors, volunteers and self-employed people you engage. The precise duties depend on the working arrangements. This article addresses the framework in Great Britain; Northern Ireland has separate legislation.

What Is Lone Working?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) describes lone workers as people who work by themselves without close or direct supervision. Immediate assistance may not be readily available if an emergency, accident or episode of ill health occurs.

A lone worker may work within your premises, travel between locations or work in an isolated environment. Examples include cleaners, security staff, drivers, maintenance engineers, home visitors, shop workers, people working after hours and homeworkers.

Is Lone Working Legal?

Working alone is not generally prohibited, but you must assess whether it can be carried out safely. Lone working must not proceed where the risks cannot be adequately controlled or where the work requires other people to be present.

Some high-risk activities require another person or a suitably organised team. HSE examples include certain confined space work and work near exposed live electrical conductors. Assess the specific activity and any applicable requirements before authorising it.

Lone Working Responsibilities for Employers and Employees

Employers must assess and control lone working risks. Your arrangements should include:

• Suitable and sufficient risk assessments.
• Identification of hazards associated with lone working.
• Control measures to eliminate or reduce risks.
• Information, instruction, training and appropriate supervision.
• Emergency arrangements.
• Monitoring of the effectiveness of lone working procedures.

Employees also have responsibilities. They must:

• Follow safe working procedures.
• Use equipment provided correctly.
• Report hazards and incidents promptly.
• Cooperate with safety measures and monitoring arrangements.

Common Lone Working Hazards and Risks

Lone working can increase the consequences of ordinary workplace hazards because colleagues are not readily available to assist. Limited oversight and delays in raising the alarm can allow a small incident to become more serious.

Lone Working Risks: Violence and Aggression

Lone workers may face verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, physical assault or harassment. These risks can be particularly relevant in healthcare, social care, housing, enforcement and customer-facing roles.

Lone Working Risks: Medical Emergencies

If a lone worker becomes ill or suffers an injury, nobody may be nearby to assist or summon help. Examples include injuries following slips, trips and falls, heart attacks, epileptic seizures, diabetic emergencies and allergic reactions.

Lone Working Risks: Accidents and Injuries

Routine workplace hazards can have greater consequences when a person works alone. Consider falls from height, manual handling injuries, contact with machinery and exposure to hazardous substances.

Lone Working Risks: Mental Health and Wellbeing

Extended periods of isolation can contribute to stress, anxiety, fatigue, reduced morale and feelings of disconnection from colleagues. Your lone working arrangements should include appropriate support and opportunities to maintain contact.

Lone Working Risks: Environmental Hazards

Lone workers may be exposed to extreme weather, including hot working conditions, remote locations, poor lighting, difficult terrain, flooding and other natural hazards. Assess how these conditions affect safe access, communication and the ability of emergency services to reach the worker.

What Should a Lone Working Risk Assessment Cover?

Assess the person, environment and task together. Identify what could go wrong, how being alone could increase harm, how quickly help is needed and whether assistance can reach the worker.

• Person: Experience, competence, language and communication needs, relevant health conditions or disabilities, fatigue, pregnancy where applicable, and the ability to use equipment, recognise danger and summon assistance.
• Environment: Isolation, opening hours, lighting, access and escape routes, mobile or radio coverage, weather, public contact, animals, security, hazardous areas and emergency service access.
• Task: Machinery, electricity, work at height, substances, manual handling, driving, cash or valuables, enforcing rules, refusing services, sensitive conversations and responsibility for vulnerable people.
• Emergency arrangements: How help will be summoned, first aid provision, emergency contacts and evacuation arrangements.

Consider routine duties, foreseeable failures, emergencies and changes during the shift.

How to Carry Out a Lone Working Risk Assessment

Your lone working risk assessment should first consider whether you can eliminate the need to work alone. Options include changing the time or location, arranging two workers, using mechanical assistance or delivering the service remotely.

A separate document headed “lone working risk assessment” is not mandatory if other assessments adequately cover the relevant risks and controls. Identify hazards, evaluate the risks, implement controls and review their effectiveness.

Specify authorised activities, prohibited tasks, required controls, contact arrangements and who approves exceptions. Cost or convenience must not override a safety-critical requirement.

When to Use a Dynamic Lone Working Risk Assessment

A dynamic lone working risk assessment may be appropriate where conditions can change during a task. It involves continuously assessing risks in real time so the worker can respond safely to unforeseen hazards or emergencies.

Dynamic assessment supplements rather than replaces the planned risk assessment and controls. Workers should know when to stop, withdraw and seek assistance instead of continuing with an unsafe task.

Lone Working Control Measures

Lone working control measures should address the risks identified in your assessment. Communication, safe systems of work, training, supervision and suitable equipment must work together rather than relying on a single device or procedure.

Lone Working Communication and Check-In Procedures

Establish reliable communication procedures. Options include scheduled check-ins, mobile phones, radios, lone worker monitoring devices, panic alarms and location tracking where appropriate.

Before work starts, establish how the worker will stay in touch, who will monitor contact and what happens if a check-in is missed. Record the worker’s location, expected completion time and changes to planned work. Check that your arrangements function in the actual working environment.

Lone Working Safe Systems of Work

Lone working safe systems of work should clearly define expected working arrangements, permitted activities, emergency actions, reporting requirements and escalation procedures. Make sure workers understand the limits of what they are authorised to do alone.

Lone Working Training and Emergency Procedures

Lone working training should reflect the role and risks. Relevant topics may include personal safety, conflict resolution, emergency procedures, first aid, use of lone worker devices and dynamic risk assessment.

Emergency arrangements must explain how help will be raised, who will respond and how responders will reach the worker. Provide appropriate first aid arrangements rather than assuming a worker can manage every emergency independently.

Lone Working Supervision and Monitoring

Lone working requires appropriate supervision, even though the worker operates independently. Measures may include welfare calls, site visits and electronic monitoring where appropriate.

Supervision should reflect the risks and the person’s experience. New workers and those facing unfamiliar situations may need closer support until they can recognise hazards and apply controls reliably. Review procedures after incidents or relevant changes.

Lone Working Personal Protective Equipment

Where your assessment identifies a need, provide and maintain suitable personal protective equipment (PPE). Examples include high-visibility clothing, protective footwear and head protection. PPE does not replace the need to eliminate or control hazards through safer working arrangements.

Lone Working Safety: Key Actions for Employers

Lone working can be carried out safely when appropriate controls are implemented. Effective risk assessment, communication, training and emergency arrangements are essential to protecting people who work alone.

Although many hazards are similar to those faced by colleagues, working alone can increase the risk because of the nature or location of the task and the absence of immediate assistance. Employers must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees.

For further guidance, consult the HSE lone working guidance and its advice on managing lone working risks. This article provides general guidance, not advice on a specific working arrangement.