There is no single 'lone worker law', but the duties are assembled from the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: risk-assess lone working activities, put control measures in place, provide training and supervision, and — critically — establish reliable means of communication and emergency response. 'They have a mobile phone' is not, by itself, an adequate control measure.
The professional toolkit is layered. Scheduled check-in calls or lone-worker apps with missed-check escalation. Man-down and panic devices for higher-risk roles. And the measure most businesses overlook: removing lone working at the highest-risk moments altogether. Security lock-and-unlock services mean your staff never open or close premises alone; escorted access means contractors and agents are never alone with strangers in empty buildings; and professional alarm response means nobody investigates a break-in solo at 3am.
“'They have a mobile phone' is not a control measure. It is an assumption.”
Lone worker incidents create personal tragedy, prosecution risk, insurance claims and staff turnover. The controls cost remarkably little — keyholding with lock/unlock support typically runs a few pounds per day. Measured against a single HSE prosecution or a valued employee who no longer feels safe, it is the easiest risk-reduction budget in your business.
