Lone-worker safety

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Blog

Working and living alone,
explained clearly.

Plain-English writing on the law, the technology and the choices behind keeping people safe when they are on their own: for the managers who carry the duty, and for the families and individuals who just want someone to know.

For employers

Duty of care, policy and procedure for organisations whose people work alone, including sector-by-sector guidance.

For employers
Lone Worker Safety in Retail and Hospitality: Opening Up and Closing Alone
The shop assistant on a quiet Sunday, the duty manager cashing up after close, the bar staff walking to the car at one in the morning — retail and hospitality lone working is the most common in the country and the least often covered. Here is where the risk actually sits, what an alarm has to do when there is a customer standing in front of you, and how to protect open-up, close-down and the walk home.
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For employers
Lone Worker Safety in Oil, Gas and Fuel: Covering the Risk of Working Alone
Fuel depots, tank farms, refineries and remote pumping stations are often worked alone, in atmospheres where a slip, a gas exposure or a fall can go unseen for too long. Here is how to cover the lone-working risk in oil, gas and fuel, from automatic man-down detection to an alarm that actually reaches a responder with a location.
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For employers
Lone Worker Safety in Waste and Recycling: Protecting Crews on the Round
Refuse and recycling work mixes moving vehicles, solo rounds, sharps and the public, and much of it is done out of sight of a supervisor. Here is how to cover the lone-working risk for waste crews, from automatic man-down detection to an alarm that reaches a responder with a location.
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For employers
Lone Worker Safety for Drivers and Mobile Workers
Delivery drivers, field engineers and mobile workers spend the day alone, between sites, often where nobody knows exactly where they are. Here is how to cover the lone-working risk for people who work from a vehicle, from automatic man-down detection to journey check-ins that escalate.
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For employers
Lone Worker Safety in Farming and Agriculture
Agriculture has the worst fatal-injury rate of any UK industry, and most of it is worked alone, in remote fields with no signal. Here is how to cover the lone-working risk on a farm, from automatic man-down detection to off-grid satellite SOS.
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Employer guide
After a Lone Worker Incident: What to Do in the First 24 Hours
Almost every lone working policy covers prevention and stops at the alarm. What happens in the hours after an incident decides whether the worker is properly supported, whether you can evidence what happened, and whether your RIDDOR obligations are met. Here's a practical first-24-hours checklist for UK employers — the response, the reporting, the record, and the follow-up that most organisations only write down after their first serious incident.
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Seasonal guide
Lone Working Through Winter: Darker Nights, Worse Weather, Same Duty of Care
The clocks go back on 25 October and half your lone working moves into the dark. Nothing about the duty of care changes — but the risks do. Here's a practical UK checklist for winter lone working: what actually gets more dangerous between October and March, the controls worth putting in before the first hard frost, and how to make sure a worker who comes off worse in the dark is missed within minutes rather than at the end of the shift.
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For safety & HSE leads
Lone Worker Policy: What UK Law Requires (Plus a Free Template)
If any of your people ever work alone, you need a lone worker policy — and 'we'll be careful' isn't one. Here's exactly what a compliant UK lone worker policy has to cover, what the HSE actually expects of you, and a free template structure you can adapt and put in place today. → vygard.com
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For safety & HSE leads
Lone Worker Law in the UK: Your Legal Duties, Explained
There's no single 'lone worker law' in the UK — which is exactly why employers get caught out. Here's what the legislation actually requires when your people work alone, the duties that sit on you as an employer, and what 'so far as is reasonably practicable' means in real life. → vygard.com
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Off-grid & satellite
Off-Grid Lone Worker Safety: Getting Help Beyond Mobile Signal
Foresters, farmers, surveyors, utility crews and rescue teams work exactly where the mobile signal runs out — and a lone worker app is only as good as the network beneath it. Here's how off-grid safety actually works, when you need satellite, and what to look for.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety for Community & District Nurses
Community and district nurses lone-work every day — in strangers' homes, unpredictable situations and rural blackspots, often after dark. Here's where the real risk sits, what a lone worker solution has to do for a visiting clinician, and why discreet, monitored response matters more in healthcare than anywhere.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety on Construction Sites
Construction lone working happens more than sites admit — early starts, late lock-ups, one operative on a quiet plot, subcontractors working out of sight. Here's where the real risk sits on site, what a lone worker solution has to do for construction, and how it ties into your CDM and RIDDOR obligations.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety for Home Care Workers
Home care is lone working from the first visit to the last — in strangers' homes, alone, often after dark, for some of the lowest-paid and most exposed workers there are. Here's where the risk sits, what a care-sector lone worker solution has to do, and why discreet, monitored response matters so much.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety for Security Guards
Manned guarding is lone working by design — one officer, an empty site, the small hours, and the expectation of confronting exactly the situations everyone else is protected from. Here's where the risk sits for security officers, what a lone worker solution has to do, and why the response chain decides everything.
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Guide
Lone Working in Mobile Blackspots: Protecting People Where Phones Don't Work
Forests, valleys, plant rooms and rural rounds — much of the UK's riskiest lone working happens exactly where mobile signal fails. How to assess blackspot risk honestly, the controls that still work without signal, and how modern lone-worker systems handle the gaps.
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Guide
Lone Worker Risk Assessment: A Practical UK Template
How to run a lone worker risk assessment that satisfies the HSE and actually protects people: a practical step-by-step structure, worked examples and the controls assessors expect to see.
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Guide
Writing a Lone Working Policy: What to Include (UK)
A practical structure for a UK lone working policy: scope, responsibilities, check-in rules, escalation, training and review — with the clauses safety audits look for.
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Guide
Setting Up a Lone Working Check-in Procedure That People Actually Follow
How to design a lone worker check-in procedure that survives contact with real shifts: choosing intervals by risk, defining the missed check-in response, beating alert fatigue and making the habit stick.
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Guide
Lone Worker Safety & Duty of Care: A UK Guide
A practical UK guide to lone worker safety: what the law and HSE expect, employer duty of care, risk assessment and the technology that helps.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety in Care & Social Care
A practical UK guide to keeping community and domiciliary care workers safe on solo home visits, covering aggression, medical emergencies and CQC duties.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety in Construction
A UK guide to protecting solo construction workers, covering work at height, plant, confined spaces, remote sites with poor signal and CDM and HSE duties.
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Sector guide
Lone Worker Safety in Security
A UK guide to protecting lone security guards, door supervisors and mobile patrols, covering confrontation, BS 8484, graded police response and SIA context.
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Comparisons, standards and real costs, for when you are deciding what to actually buy.

Personal & family

For individuals, households and anyone keeping an eye on someone who spends time on their own.

From Vygard

Product releases, platform updates and how we think about safety.

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