Lone working without a policy nobody reads

Who counts as a lone worker

A lone worker is anyone who works without close or direct supervision. That is much wider than the stereotype of a night engineer. It includes home workers, mobile engineers, delivery drivers, care and support workers visiting homes, cleaners working out of hours, security staff, farm workers, and shop or reception staff who are alone for part of a shift.

It also includes people who are physically alone in a part of a building even though colleagues are on site, because in an emergency the distance is what counts.

Lone workers change the answer your first aid needs assessment gives, because nobody is there to raise the alarm.

The specific risks to assess

The task hazards do not change because someone is alone, but the consequences and the rescue arrangements do. Assess the additional factors on top of the normal task assessment.

• Can one person carry out the whole task safely, including any lifting, handling or plant operation?
• What happens if they are injured or taken ill and cannot call for help?
• Is there a risk of violence, aggression or harassment, in public facing roles or home visits?
• Are there medical conditions, pregnancy, or new or young worker factors that make lone work unsuitable?
• Is mobile signal reliable at the location, and is there a fallback if it is not?
• How long could someone be undiscovered in the worst case?

Your arrangements for lone work belong in the policy, so check when you need a written health and safety policy.

Work that should not be done alone

Some tasks are prohibited or effectively prohibited for a lone worker by specific regulations or by the impossibility of rescue. Confined space entry requires emergency arrangements under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, which in practice means a top person and a rescue plan. Live electrical work under regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 requires suitable precautions including, normally, accompaniment.

Beyond the named cases, apply a simple test: if the emergency plan needs a second person to execute it, the task is not a lone task. That usually rules out working at height with a fall arrest system where suspension trauma is a risk, entry into atmospheres requiring breathing apparatus, and heavy plant recovery.

Check-in systems that actually work

The weakest link in most lone working arrangements is the check-in. A buddy system where nobody notices a missed message is worse than no system, because it creates false confidence.

Whatever method you use, three things must be defined in advance: the interval, the named person who is expecting the check-in, and the escalation if it does not arrive. Escalation should be time bound and end with someone physically attending or calling the emergency services.

• Automated check-in apps with timers and man down detection suit mobile and high risk roles.
• Scheduled calls or messages to a named person suit predictable shifts.
• A lone worker device with an SOS button suits public facing and care roles.
• A physical sign in and sign out board still works for a single site out of hours.

Violence and home visits

For staff visiting homes or dealing with the public, aggression is often the dominant risk. Keep a risk flag on addresses where there has been a previous incident, and share it with the person before they attend. Train staff in de-escalation and give them explicit permission to leave. A policy that says leave if you feel unsafe, backed by managers who never question that judgement, prevents more harm than any device.

Record every incident of verbal abuse as well as physical, because the pattern is what justifies changing the arrangements before someone is seriously hurt.

Making the policy real

A lone working policy that is read once at induction does nothing. Turn it into three visible artefacts: a list of tasks that may not be done alone, a check-in schedule with named responders, and a monthly review of missed check-ins and incidents.

Test it. Deliberately miss a check-in once a quarter and see how long escalation takes. The results of that test are the most useful lone working evidence you can put in front of a client or an inspector.

Common questions

Is lone working illegal?

No. It is lawful for most work provided the risks are assessed and controlled, and provided the task is not one that legally or practically needs a second person.

Do we need a lone worker device?

Not automatically. The assessment decides. Devices are proportionate where the risk of injury or violence is high or the worker could be undiscovered for hours.

Can a young worker work alone?

Rarely. Regulation 19 of the Management Regulations requires extra protection for under 18s, and inexperience usually makes unsupervised lone work unsuitable.

Related guides

• first aid needs assessment
• when you need a written health and safety policy