Lone worker risk assessment template,
free and ungated

What this template is

A lone worker risk assessment records the risks a person faces when they work out of sight and earshot of colleagues — and, the part a general risk assessment misses, how anyone would know if something went wrong. This template gives you one row per lone-working task, with columns that force the questions that matter: what could happen, how long before it's noticed, who responds, and how.

The three example rows are deliberately different — a high-risk forestry chainsaw operation, a medium-risk vacant-property survey, and an evening home care visit — so you can see how the same structure flexes from “check in every 30 minutes with fall detection on” to “confirm arrival and departure per visit”. Replace them with your own tasks and keep the columns.

What each column is for

• Task/Activity — Assess the task, not the job title — the same role can carry very different risks across a shift.

• Location — Where the work happens, including the honest signal and access picture.

• Worker(s) — Who does this task alone — role or named individuals.

• Hazards — What could cause harm, viewed through the lone-working lens.

• Who Might Be Harmed & How — The specific harm scenario when nobody is nearby to notice or help.

• Existing Controls — What already protects the worker — training, PPE, procedures, technology.

• Risk Rating (L/M/H) — A simple low / medium / high judgement with the controls in place.

• Additional Controls Required — What still needs doing, including tasks that should never be done alone.

• Check-in/Comms Arrangement — The check-in interval and how the worker raises the alarm — the lone-working control assessors look for first.

• Escalation Contact — Who responds when a check-in is missed or an alarm fires, in order.

• Review Date — When this row gets looked at again — after any incident, and at least annually.

How it maps to the HSE's risk assessment steps

UK health and safety guidance describes risk assessment as a sequence of steps: identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risks and decide on precautions, record the findings, and review. The HSE's lone working guidance adds the specific expectation that working alone is itself factored in — including how a worker raises the alarm and how the organisation responds. The template's columns follow that structure directly:

1. Identify the hazards

The Task/Activity, Location and Hazards columns capture what could cause harm and where — with the location column prompting the questions (signal, access, distance from help) that matter most when someone works alone.

2. Decide who might be harmed and how

The Worker(s) and Who Might Be Harmed & How columns record the specific scenario — not just 'operative could be injured' but what happens when that injury occurs with no one in earshot.

3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

Existing Controls, Risk Rating and Additional Controls Required hold the judgement: what already protects the worker, how serious the residual risk is, and what still needs to change — including naming any task that needs a second person.

4. Record your findings and implement them

The completed sheet is the record. The Check-in/Comms Arrangement and Escalation Contact columns turn the paperwork into an operating procedure: a monitoring interval and a named response path per task.

5. Review and update as necessary

The Review Date column keeps each row on a cycle. Review after any incident or near-miss, when the work changes, and at least annually.

This template and page are general guidance to help you structure an assessment — they are not legal advice, and a completed template is only as good as the thinking recorded in it. For the official position, see the HSE's published guidance on risk assessment and lone working, and take competent advice where your risks are complex.

From spreadsheet to operating procedure

Two of the template's columns — the check-in arrangement and the escalation contact — describe things a spreadsheet can record but can't run. If your completed assessment calls for scheduled check-ins, man-down detection or a tested escalation path, that's the part Vygard automates: check-ins on the interval your assessment sets, alerts that escalate through named responders, and an audit trail that evidences the control operating. No pressure either way — the template is yours to keep regardless.