Lone Working Safety Course (UK): Lessons 2026

Lesson 1: What lone working is and the law

HSE says you are a lone worker if you work by yourself without close or direct supervision. Examples include people working alone in shops, petrol stations, factories, warehouses or leisure centres, and people who visit homes or work out in the field. A security officer alone on a site at night is a lone worker, even if other people are in the building.

It will often be safe to work alone. But the law says the employer must think about and deal with the risks before anyone works alone.

The main laws in Great Britain

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2: the employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees, including information, instruction, training and supervision.
• Section 7 of the same Act: employees must take reasonable care for themselves and others, and co-operate with the employer.
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: the employer must assess and manage the risks, including the risks to lone workers.

The employer's responsibilities cannot be passed on to anyone else, including the lone worker. They also cover people contracted to do the work, including self-employed people.

In Northern Ireland, the matching laws are the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000. The regulator there is the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).

Lesson 2: Assessing the risks

There is no legal requirement for a separate lone worker risk assessment. The risks of working alone must be part of the employer's general risk assessment. An employer with five or more employees must write down the significant findings and any group of workers found to be especially at risk.

Things the assessment should consider

• Violence and aggression from members of the public
• Manual handling that is unsafe for one person
• Whether the worker is medically fit to work alone
• The workplace itself, such as an isolated or rural site
• Stress, mental health and wellbeing
• Whether the worker is young, pregnant, disabled or a trainee

If you work alone at another employer's site, your employer must ask that employer about the risks there and how they are controlled.

Work that needs at least one other person

HSE says some high-risk work needs at least one other person present, such as work in a confined space, near exposed live electricity conductors, in diving operations, in vehicles carrying explosives, and fumigation. For a confined space, a supervisor and a person ready to carry out a rescue may be needed.

Lesson 3: Supervision and keeping in touch

HSE says that the higher the risk, the more supervision is needed. New workers should usually be supervised at first, especially while they are being trained or facing new situations. Lone workers may need extra training, because they cannot easily ask a more experienced colleague for help.

Your employer must monitor lone workers and keep in touch with them. Ways to do this include:

• Visits from a supervisor
• Check-ins at pre-agreed intervals by phone, radio or email
• Devices for raising the alarm, which work by hand or automatically
• A reliable system to confirm the worker has got back to base or home at the end of the work

These systems and all emergency procedures should be tested regularly, so that a worker can be reached when something goes wrong.

Your check-in checklist

• Know your check-in times and who you check in with
• Know what happens if you miss a check-in
• Make sure you are trained to use any alarm device or app
• Tell your contact when your plans or location change
• Confirm when you have finished and left the site

Lesson 4: Violence, danger and reporting

HSE defines work-related violence as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This includes verbal threats. Lone working does not automatically mean a higher risk of violence, but it does make workers more vulnerable.

Training should help you recognise when you are at risk, use conflict resolution, or leave. Report every incident to your employer, who should support any worker who has faced violence.

Your right to move away from danger

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, emergency procedures must let people stop work and go to a place of safety if they face serious, imminent and unavoidable danger. Under section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a worker who leaves or refuses to return to a place because of danger they reasonably believe is serious and imminent is protected from being treated unfairly for it.

Reporting under RIDDOR

The responsible person, usually the employer, makes the report. An injury that keeps a worker off normal work for more than 7 days must be reported within 15 days of the incident.

Lesson 5: First aid, health and wellbeing

The risk assessment may show that a lone worker should carry first aid equipment and have first aid training, including how to give first aid to themselves. Emergency procedures must be set up and workers trained in them.

Working alone can raise stress and affect mental health. If contact is poor, workers may feel cut off, isolated or abandoned. Employers have a legal responsibility to help, and the Equality Act 2010 may require reasonable adjustments for some workers.

Raising a concern

If you are worried about your safety as a lone worker, talk to your employer, a manager or supervisor, or a health and safety representative. You must also do your part: follow the procedures, use the equipment you are given and take reasonable care.

Employers must give adequate health and safety training when people start work and when risks change, and that training must take place during working hours. This course is background knowledge only and does not replace it.