The short version
- The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires you to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees - lone workers included.
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment; with five or more employees, the significant findings must be recorded.
- HSE guidance (INDG73, "Protecting lone workers") sets the expected standard: training, supervision, monitoring and a way to raise the alarm.
- Employees have their own duty to cooperate and use the safety arrangements you provide.
- Work-related deaths, specified injuries and dangerous occurrences are reportable under RIDDOR.
What the law says
Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places the general duty on employers: ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees. Section 3 extends a duty to people affected by your undertaking who are not employees - relevant where contractors and volunteers work alone for you.
Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks employees are exposed to at work. For lone workers this means assessing the specific risks of the work being done alone: violence and aggression, sudden illness, accidents with no one to help, and communication failure.
There is no standalone "lone working act". The standard comes from applying these duties, and the HSE's guidance leaflet INDG73 is the document inspectors and courts reach for when judging whether an employer's arrangements were reasonable.
What it means in practice
- Identify everyone who works alone at any point - home visits, opening and closing, driving between jobs, out-of-hours work.
- Carry out and record a lone working risk assessment per role. Our free risk assessment template follows the HSE's five-step structure.
- Put monitoring in place proportionate to the risk: check-in procedures at minimum, and a reliable way for the worker to raise the alarm - HSE guidance specifically contemplates lone worker devices and apps for higher-risk work.
- Train lone workers on the risks and procedures, including when to withdraw from a situation.
- Make sure the response side works: someone must receive the alarm and act on it, at every hour lone work happens.
- Review the assessment after incidents, near misses and changes to the work.
Who is personally on the hook
Individual directors and managers can be prosecuted under section 37 of HSWA 1974 where an offence is committed with their consent, connivance or neglect. At the corporate level, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 applies where a gross breach of a duty of care by senior management causes death.
The practical takeaway: lone worker arrangements are a board-level assurance item. "We had a policy" has repeatedly failed as a defence where the monitoring and response arrangements did not actually function.
When something goes wrong
Under RIDDOR 2013, work-related deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day incapacitation and certain dangerous occurrences must be reported to the HSE. Physical violence to a worker arising from their work is reportable when it causes a qualifying injury. Our incident report form template includes the reportability check.