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HSE updates it guidance on lone worker safety

Barbour EHS

The HSE has updated its guidance, ‘Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone, to help strengthen the protection of lone workers’ health and safety.

The update includes a new section on how to protect lone workers from the risk of work-related violence. It contains information on how managers should keep in touch with lone workers, and new advice on the impact lone working can have on stress, mental health and wellbeing.

The employer should ensure that they provide sufficient training, supervision, monitoring and support for lone workers.

Lone workers exist in all sectors and include those who:

• Work alone at a fixed base, for example in shops, petrol stations, factories, warehouses or leisure centres.
• Work separately from other people on the same premises or outside normal working hours, for example security staff, cleaners, maintenance and repair staff.
• Work at home.
• Work away from a fixed base, such as: health, medical and social care workers visiting people’s homes etc; workers involved in construction, maintenance and repair including engineers, plant installation and cleaning workers; engineers, assessors and delivery drivers of equipment and supplies who attend construction projects; etc.
• Volunteers carrying out work on their own, for charities or voluntary organisations.

Click here to read the Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone, to help strengthen the protection of lone workers’ guideance in full.

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