What is a lone working risk assessment?
A lone worker is someone who works by themselves without close or direct supervision — an engineer attending a call-out, a cleaner in an empty unit, a driver on a long run. A lone working risk assessment looks at the job that person is doing and asks what changes because nobody else is there.
A suitable assessment should consider:
- The hazards involved in the actual task
- Whether working alone changes the likelihood or severity of harm
- How the worker will communicate with others
- How they will get help
- What should happen in an emergency
- Whether the work is suitable to be carried out alone at all
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, employers must manage the risk to lone workers, including training, supervising and monitoring them, keeping in touch and responding to incidents. For current requirements and guidance, refer to the HSE's official lone-working guidance.
Lone working is not automatically unsafe — but some work needs a second person
Working alone is not prohibited and is not automatically unsafe. The question is whether the risks can be adequately controlled. Plenty of routine trade work is carried out alone every day without issue.
Some work is different. HSE guidance identifies certain high-risk work that requires at least one other person, including work:
- In a confined space, where a supervisor may need to be present along with someone in a rescue role
- Near exposed live electricity conductors
- In diving operations
- In vehicles carrying explosives
- Involving fumigation
These examples are not an exhaustive legal list, and they are not hazards to be "controlled" through a lone working checklist. If a task falls into this territory, do not treat it as routine lone work. Follow the relevant HSE/legal requirements and arrange the supervision, assistance or additional people the task requires.
Lone working risk assessment template
Use the structure below as a reusable starting point. It must be adapted to the actual work, worker, site and conditions — the layout can be reused on every job, the content should not be.
1. Job and worker details
- Job or activity
- Site or location
- Person working alone
- Employer or contractor
- Date
- Expected start and end time
- Review date
- Person responsible for check-in, where applicable
2. Work being carried out
- Task description
- Location and environment
- Tools and equipment
- Substances or materials
- Travel involved
- Access and egress
- Expected duration
- Whether customers or the public are present
3. Lone working hazards
- Hazard
- Who may be harmed
- Initial risk
- Control measures
- Residual risk
4. Communication and monitoring
- Agreed check-in method
- Check-in frequency, where appropriate
- Contact person
- Missed check-in procedure
- Phone, radio or device requirements
- Signal or connectivity issues
- Escalation process
5. Emergency arrangements
- Emergency contact
- How help will be raised
- First aid arrangements
- Access for emergency services, where relevant
- What happens if the worker cannot be contacted
- Location sharing arrangements, only where appropriate
6. Competence and suitability
- Competence and training
- Familiarity with the task
- Equipment training
- Ability to recognise when work must stop
- Any worker-specific considerations relevant to safe working
7. Review and sign-off
- Prepared by
- Reviewed by
- Worker briefed
- Date
- Trigger for review
If you also need a general structure for site work, use the risk assessment template for UK trades and add the lone working sections above.
Common lone working hazards and control measures
The hazards below are common themes rather than a universal list. What actually applies depends on the job, the site and the person doing the work.
Injury with no immediate assistance
Examples
- Slips and trips
- Cuts
- Manual handling injury
- Tool or equipment injury
Control themes
- Agreed communication and check-in arrangements
- Suitable first aid provision
- A clear emergency plan
- Training appropriate to the task
Unfamiliar or isolated sites
Examples
- Site access
- Poor phone signal
- Remote or rural locations
- Poor lighting
Control themes
- Check site details and access before travelling
- Confirm how help would reach the worker
- Provide lighting where needed
- Plan around known signal blackspots
Violence or aggression
Examples
- Entering customers' homes or premises
- Working late or very early
- Carrying valuable equipment
- Dealing with challenging members of the public
Control themes
- Share job details and expected timings with a colleague
- Agree a way to withdraw and leave safely
- Report and record incidents so patterns are visible
- Brief workers on the site or customer history where known
Medical emergency
Examples
- Sudden illness with nobody present
- Known restrictions where legitimately relevant to the work
Control themes
- Consider medical suitability to work alone, using proper advice where needed
- Ensure a reliable way to raise the alarm
- Set out what happens if contact is lost
Driving or travelling alone
Examples
- Long journeys
- Fatigue
- Remote locations
- Vehicle breakdown
Control themes
- Plan realistic journey times
- Agree breaks on longer runs
- Confirm breakdown and recovery arrangements
- Record expected arrival and return times
Hazardous work or equipment
Examples
- Tasks that would normally need a second person
- Work where rescue would be required
Control themes
- Decide whether the work is suitable to be done alone at all
- Reschedule the task so another person is present
- Stop and escalate rather than improvise controls
Stress, wellbeing and isolation
Examples
- Long periods without contact
- Pressure with no immediate support
Control themes
- Keep in regular touch with lone workers
- Make it easy to raise concerns
- Review workload and working patterns
Example: maintenance electrician attending a commercial property alone
Scenario: an electrician attends an occupied commercial property to investigate and replace a faulty light fitting. The circuit is isolated, locked off and proved dead before work begins. Any task that would require a second person — including work near exposed live conductors — must not be authorised by this assessment.
Injury or sudden illness with nobody present
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician
- Initial risk
- High
- Control measures
- Agreed check-in at arrival, mid-visit and completion; named contact aware of the job and address; escalation if contact is missed; first aid kit carried
- Residual risk
- Medium
Electrical risk during fault finding and replacement
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician, building occupants
- Initial risk
- High
- Control measures
- Circuit safely isolated, locked off and proved dead before work; test equipment checked; if the task cannot be completed with the circuit dead, work stops and is rescheduled with a second person
- Residual risk
- Low
Unfamiliar premises, access and egress
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician
- Initial risk
- Medium
- Control measures
- Site contact confirmed in advance; walkthrough of route and exits on arrival; work area kept clear; suitable task lighting used
- Residual risk
- Low
Work at height from steps or a platform
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician, occupants
- Initial risk
- Medium
- Control measures
- Suitable access equipment selected and pre-use checked; level footing; short-duration work only; area below kept clear
- Residual risk
- Low
Interaction with occupants and the public
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician, occupants, visitors
- Initial risk
- Medium
- Control measures
- Work area segregated; occupants informed before isolation; ID carried; agreed withdrawal if behaviour becomes threatening, with the incident reported
- Residual risk
- Low
Limited phone signal preventing help being summoned
- Who could be harmed
- Electrician
- Initial risk
- Medium
- Control measures
- Signal checked on arrival; landline or reception desk identified as a backup; check-in times agreed with an office contact who will escalate if missed
- Residual risk
- Medium
This is an example only. Controls must reflect the actual task, worker, site and conditions.
How to carry out a lone working risk assessment
- Define the task and the location.
- Identify the hazards that would apply to the task anyway.
- Ask what becomes more likely or more serious because the person is alone.
- Decide whether the work can safely be carried out alone at all.
- Put practical controls in place for the hazards that remain.
- Agree communication, monitoring and emergency arrangements.
- Brief the worker before the job starts.
- Review when the job, worker, location or conditions change.
If something does go wrong while someone is working alone, the follow-up matters as much as the assessment. See near miss and incident reporting for small site teams for how to record what happened and what changed afterwards.
Lone working risk assessment vs lone working policy
These are related but different documents, and one does not replace the other.
Lone working risk assessment
- Applies the risk management process to the actual work or activity
- Identifies hazards, who may be harmed and the controls needed
- Varies by task, site and person
Lone working policy
- Describes the organisation's wider approach to managing lone working
- Sets responsibilities and which roles or tasks may work alone
- Covers check-in expectations, escalation and emergency arrangements
- Covers training, supervision and review responsibilities
What should a lone working policy include?
A concise, reusable policy structure usually covers:
- Purpose and scope
- Definition of lone working
- Roles and responsibilities
- Risk assessment requirements
- Work that must not be carried out alone
- Communication and check-in process
- Escalation for missed contact
- Emergency arrangements
- Training and supervision
- Incident reporting
- Review frequency
Where a job needs both a risk assessment and a written safe method of work, the client or principal contractor may ask for RAMS instead. Not all lone working requires RAMS — but if yours does, start from the RAMS template.
Create your lone working risk assessment in Graftly
A template shows what needs to be considered. Graftly helps trades and small teams create and manage practical risk assessments digitally, without starting from a blank document every time.
- Guided risk assessment creation
- Hazards and control measures you can adapt
- Site and job details reused across documents
- Digital storage, organised by job
- PDF export for clients and principal contractors
- Accessible from phone, tablet or desktop
Graftly is a site documentation tool. It does not provide live worker tracking, automatic missed check-in monitoring, panic alarms, man-down detection or monitoring-centre services.
Related site safety documents
Frequently asked questions
What is a lone working risk assessment?
It is a risk assessment for work carried out by someone without close or direct supervision. As well as the normal task hazards, it considers whether working alone changes the likelihood or severity of harm, how the worker will keep in contact, how they will get help and what happens in an emergency.
Is lone working illegal in the UK?
Working alone is not generally prohibited. Employers must manage the health and safety risks to lone workers, and HSE guidance identifies certain high-risk work that requires at least one other person, such as work in confined spaces, near exposed live electricity conductors, diving operations, work in vehicles carrying explosives and fumigation work.
What should be included in a lone working risk assessment?
Job and worker details, a description of the work, the hazards and who may be harmed, control measures and residual risk, communication and monitoring arrangements, emergency arrangements, competence and suitability, and review and sign-off.
What are common lone working hazards?
Common themes include injury or illness with nobody present to help, unfamiliar or isolated sites, violence or aggression, medical emergencies, driving and travelling alone, hazardous work or equipment, and stress or isolation. The hazards that actually apply depend on the job.
How often should a lone working risk assessment be reviewed?
There is no single fixed interval. Review it when the task, worker, site, equipment or conditions change, after an incident or near miss, and periodically to check it is still suitable and current.
Is a lone working risk assessment the same as a lone working policy?
No. A risk assessment applies the risk management process to a specific activity and its hazards. A policy sets out the organisation's wider approach to lone working, including responsibilities, which tasks may be done alone, check-in expectations and escalation.
Can a worker carry out any task alone if a risk assessment is completed?
No. Some work is not suitable to be carried out alone, and completing a template does not make unsafe work safe. If the risks cannot be adequately controlled, the work should be rescheduled with another person present or changed.
Can I manage lone working risk assessments digitally?
Yes. Graftly lets you create, store and export risk assessments from a phone, tablet or desktop, including the hazards and controls relevant to working alone. Graftly is a documentation tool, not a lone worker monitoring, tracking or alarm service.
Official guidance / sources
- HSE — Lone working
- HSE — Lone working: protect those working alone (overview)
- HSE — Manage the risks of working alone, including high-risk work
- HSE — Lone working and violence
- HSE — Stress and other health factors for lone workers
- HSE — Training, supervision and monitoring lone workers
- HSE — Managing risks and risk assessment at work