Lone Working Risk Assessment Template

What requires or shapes this record

None of the sources we opened prescribes a lone working form, and the rules differ by place. In Great Britain the duty is the general one: the 1999 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (regulation 3) call for a risk assessment that is suitable and sufficient, and HSE's leaflet INDG73 says a separate lone working assessment is not a legal requirement, but lone working risks have to be part of the general assessment, with the workers involved, supervision set by the risk and a way to keep in touch and respond. Two Canadian provinces we read are more specific. British Columbia requires a written procedure for checking the well-being of anyone who works alone or in isolation, with the time between checks, what to do if the worker cannot be contacted, a check at the end of the shift, training for the worker and for the person who checks, and a review at least once a year. Alberta's Code treats working alone as a hazard and requires an effective communication system with regular contact at intervals that suit the hazard. In the United States we found no OSHA standard on lone working that covers every industry: the General Duty Clause applies, and a few standards deal with working alone in particular settings, such as shipyards. None of the texts we read sets a check-in interval as a length of time, so the form leaves the interval, the grace period and the response times to your own assessment and procedure. Filling it in does not prove compliance, and this page is general information rather than legal advice.

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/3242), regulation 3, Risk assessment (England, Wales and Scotland; revised text on legislation.gov.uk, which listed no outstanding effects when read on 21 October 2026)

  In Great Britain this is the general duty behind the form; it does not mention lone working, and HSE's guide names these regulations as the source of the duty to manage the risk to lone workers. Paragraph (1) has each employer assess, suitably and sufficiently, the risks to its employees while they are at work and to other people from the way it runs its undertaking, to find out what it must do to meet the law. Paragraph (3) sends the employer back to the assessment when it may have stopped being valid or what it covers has changed significantly, which is why a new site, a new person or an unexplained missed check-in are review triggers on the form. Paragraphs (4) and (5) add duties for young persons, among them their inexperience and lack of awareness of risk. Under paragraph (6) an employer of five or more employees writes down the significant findings and any group of employees the assessment shows to be especially at risk. legislation.gov.uk shows the regulation extends to England, Wales and Scotland; Northern Ireland has its own regulations, which were not read for this page.

• HSE, Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone, leaflet INDG73(rev4), first published March 2020 (Great Britain; landing page last updated 7 August 2025; leaflet read on 21 October 2026)

  HSE describes a lone worker as a person working by themselves with no close or direct supervision, at a fixed base, apart from others on the same premises, at home or away from a base, and says the guidance covers contractors, volunteers and the self-employed too. It says working alone will often be safe, but the risks have to be dealt with before people do it; that a specific, separate lone working assessment is not a legal requirement, but lone working risks belong in the general assessment, with workers involved and a review after significant changes; and that where the work is at another employer's premises, that employer is asked about its risks and controls. Its questions cover the worker (experience, training, being young, pregnant, disabled or a trainee), the place and equipment (equipment or loads that need more than one person, rural or isolated areas, other people's homes, a safe way in and out out of hours, reliable means of communication) and the work (security roles, handling cash). It gives confined spaces, work near exposed live conductors, diving, vehicles carrying explosives and fumigation as examples where at least one other person may need to be there. It advises medical advice where it is unclear whether someone with a medical condition can work alone; emergency procedures that say how and when the worker contacts the employer; first aid equipment or training, including self-aid, where the assessment shows a need; supervision set by the risk, with people accompanied at first when new, in training or facing new situations; and monitoring that may include supervisor visits, pre-agreed intervals of regular contact, alarm devices and a robust way to confirm the worker is back at base or home, all tested regularly. It adds that judging risks on the spot needs training and support and does not replace the assessment. The leaflet's PDF was read through a fetch of hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg73.pdf.

• HSE, Lone working: Protect those working alone, web guide pages 1 to 5 (Great Britain; overview page last updated 25 February 2025; read on 21 October 2026)

  The overview says employers must manage the risks before people work alone, including for contractors and self-employed people working for them, and that many lone workers also face work-related road risk. Page 2 says the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations require the risk to lone workers to be managed, and that lone workers are trained, supervised and monitored, kept in touch with and helped if something happens; it names violence, stress and mental health, a person's medical suitability to work alone and the workplace itself, such as a rural or isolated one, as risks that weigh more on lone workers. Page 3 lists violence risks such as late or early hours, authority over customers, alcohol or drugs, and carrying money or valuable equipment. Page 4 asks for procedures that allow direct contact between the worker and their manager, medical advice where a health condition raises doubt, and emergency procedures that say how and when to contact the employer. Page 5 says supervision follows the risk assessment, that a new worker may be supervised at first, and that monitoring may use supervisor visits, pre-agreed intervals of regular contact by phone, radio or email, alarm devices and a reliable way to confirm return to base, all tested regularly.

• British Columbia Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Part 4, sections 4.20.1 to 4.23, Working alone or in isolation (Canada, British Columbia; WorkSafeBC's searchable regulation, read on 21 October 2026)

  Section 4.20.1 defines working alone or in isolation as working where help would not be readily available in an emergency or if the worker is injured or ill. Section 4.20.2 has the employer identify the hazards before assigning such work and remove them or, where that is not practicable, reduce the risk as far as practicable with engineering and administrative controls. Section 4.21 requires a written procedure for checking the worker's well-being that states the time between checks and what to do if the worker cannot be contacted, including emergency rescue. A designated person contacts the worker at the set intervals and records the results, and there is a check at the end of the shift as well. The procedure and its intervals are developed with the joint committee or the worker representative, and the intervals also with the worker who works alone. A note to the section says higher-risk work needs shorter intervals and prefers seeing the worker or two-way voice contact, accepting a one-way device that calls for help when it is not reset only where those are not practicable. Section 4.22 requires training in the procedure for the worker and for the person who checks. Section 4.22.1 adds rules for late-night retail premises, which this form does not cover, and section 4.23 requires the procedures to be reviewed at least annually, and sooner after a change that could affect the worker's safety or a report that they are not working.

• Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Code (Alberta Regulation 191/2021), Part 28, sections 393 and 394, Working alone (Canada, Alberta; office consolidation current as of 31 March 2025, read on 21 October 2026)

  Section 393 says Part 28 applies where a worker works alone at a work site and help is not readily available in an emergency or if the worker is injured or ill, and that working alone counts as a hazard for the hazard assessment in Part 2 (Hazard Assessment, Elimination and Control). Section 394(1) requires the employer to provide an effective communication system for any worker working alone, by radio, landline or mobile phone or another effective electronic means, that includes regular contact by the employer or a designate at intervals appropriate to the hazard of the work. Section 394(1.1) says that where electronic communication is not practicable, the employer or a designate visits the worker, or the worker contacts them, at such intervals. Part 27 (sections 392.1 to 392.6) adds rules for fuel outlets and convenience stores, including a monitored personal emergency transmitter for each worker working alone, which this form does not cover. Alberta's page says the Code has been amended by Alberta Regulations 202/2024 and 210/2024, both in force in December 2024, and links the free consolidation, current as of 31 March 2025 with amendments up to and including Alberta Regulation 210/2024, a PDF that was read through a fetch. The Code is copyright of the Government of Alberta and is described here in our own words.

• Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, section 5(a)(1), the General Duty Clause (osha.gov), and 29 CFR 1915.84, Working alone (US; eCFR, up to date as of 19 October 2026; both read on 21 October 2026)

  Section 5(a)(1) requires each employer to provide employment and a place of employment free from recognised hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm, and section 5(a)(2) to comply with OSHA standards. A search of eCFR's Title 29, chapter XVII (OSHA), on 21 October 2026 for 'working alone', 'work alone', 'works alone' and 'lone worker' found no standard on lone working that applies to all industries. The phrase appears in rules for particular settings. 29 CFR 1915.84, in the shipyard employment standards (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1915/subpart-F/section-1915.84), requires the employer, whenever an employee works alone, for example in a confined space or an isolated location, to account for the employee by sight or verbal communication at regular intervals appropriate to the job during each shift, and at the end of the job or the shift, whichever comes first. 29 CFR 1926.800(f)(5) requires an effective means of getting help in an emergency for an employee working alone underground in a hazardous location who is out of voice range and not watched by anyone. In the longshoring standards, 1918.83(c) asks for frequent checks on any employee working alone in a tank or cargo compartment. Sections 1910.268, 1910.269, 1926.952 and 1926.965 mention working alone in telecommunications and electric power work, and the non-mandatory Appendix A to 1910.1450 advises against working alone in laboratories. State plans may set their own rules, which were not read for this page.

Each source checked on 21 October 2026. Not legal advice; check the text in force for your site.

Field by field

One form covers one task or role. Pages 1 and 2 are the assessment: the work, the people and the hazards that change when nobody else is there. Page 3 is the plan for keeping in touch and for a missed check-in, and page 4 covers training, review and the texts. The hazard prompts and the six escalation steps are ours, to change. Wherever a time is needed (the check-in interval, the wait before each escalation step, how often the procedure is tested), the form leaves a box for your own procedure, because none of the texts we read sets one as a length of time.

Assessment details and people consulted

Why: Regulation 3 asks for a suitable and sufficient assessment, and HSE expects the people who do the work to be involved. In British Columbia the check procedure is developed with the joint committee or worker representative. Naming who was consulted, and when, shows that it happened.

Common mistake: An assessment written in the office by someone who has never done the task alone.

General risk assessment this belongs to

Why: HSE says lone working does not need its own assessment but must be part of the general one. The reference keeps the two in step, and in Great Britain an employer with five or more employees must write down the significant findings (regulation 3(6)).

Common mistake: A lone working form that contradicts the site risk assessment, with nobody owning either.

Where the work is done (jurisdiction)

Why: Great Britain has a general duty and HSE guidance, British Columbia and Alberta have specific check and communication rules, and in the US we found no OSHA lone working standard for all industries. The box tells the reader which rows of section 10 apply.

Common mistake: Assuming British Columbia's check rules apply in Great Britain, or that nothing applies in the US.

Task or role assessed

Why: The hazards and the right contact arrangements follow from the work, its equipment and its vehicles, not from the job title, so the form covers one task or role.

Common mistake: One assessment for all field staff that fits nobody's actual day.

Where it is done

Why: HSE lists fixed bases, other people's premises and homes, remote areas, vehicles and homeworking, and each brings different risks. At another employer's premises, HSE says to ask that employer about its risks and controls.

Common mistake: Ticking own site only when half the work is at customers' premises.

When the person is alone, and for how long

Why: Late or early hours raise the risk of violence in HSE's guidance, and the hours and the length of each spell shape the check-in plan.

Common mistake: Writing office hours when the on-call work happens at night.

Phone or radio coverage at the location

Why: HSE asks whether the worker has adequate and reliable means of communication. Coverage is checked where the work is done, inside buildings too, and the places with no signal are written down so that a backup can be planned.

Common mistake: A phone check-in plan for a site where nobody has ever checked the signal.

Work that is not done alone

Why: HSE gives confined spaces, work near exposed live conductors, diving, vehicles carrying explosives and fumigation as examples where at least one other person may need to be there. Your own law, permits and assessment may add more.

Common mistake: Leaving the list blank, so a technician enters a chamber alone because nobody said not to.

Who works alone, and their experience

Why: HSE asks how experienced the person is in the role and in working alone, and says people who are new, in training, doing work with specific risks or facing new situations may need to be accompanied at first.

Common mistake: Sending a new starter out alone in the first week because the rota is short.

Anything that may make the person more vulnerable

Why: HSE names young, pregnant, disabled and trainee workers among those who may be more vulnerable, and regulation 3 adds duties for young persons. Write only what the person agrees to share and what changes the plan.

Common mistake: A diagnosis written on a form the whole team can read.

Fitness to work alone considered

Why: HSE says to get medical advice when it is unclear whether a health condition allows someone to work alone, thinking about routine work and emergencies. The form records that it was considered and where the advice is kept, never the clinical details.

Common mistake: Not asking at all, or asking and writing the answer on the form.

Hazard: violence and aggression

Why: HSE says lone working does not always mean more violence but leaves the person more exposed, and points to contact with the public, enforcing rules, cash or valuables, alcohol or drugs, late or early hours and places known for trouble.

Common mistake: Rating violence low because nothing has happened yet, when the person enforces rules on the public at night.

Hazard: sudden illness or injury

Why: The question is not only whether harm is likely but how long the person would wait for help. HSE lists illness and accidents among the foreseeable emergencies to plan for.

Common mistake: Assuming the person will always be able to call for help after a fall.

Hazard: the place and its equipment

Why: HSE asks whether the place brings a specific risk, such as equipment that should not be run alone or loads too large for one person, and whether there is a safe way in and out out of hours.

Common mistake: Copying the general site hazards without asking which ones change when nobody else is there.

Hazard: remoteness and access

Why: Rural or isolated work, missing coverage, the time for help to arrive and how hard the person is to find decide how close the contact has to be. HSE also notes that many lone workers face road risk at work.

Common mistake: A rescue plan that assumes a road, a signal and an address the site does not have.

Hazard: stress and isolation

Why: HSE says lone working can affect stress and mental health, and asks for procedures that allow direct contact between the person and their manager, so signs of strain are noticed early.

Common mistake: Treating check-ins as the only contact, so nobody asks the person how the work is going.

Controls, risk and owner for each hazard

Why: For each hazard the form asks what is in place, what more is needed, the risk on your own scale and who will act by when. British Columbia's rule is to remove the hazard, or reduce the risk as far as practicable, before the work starts.

Common mistake: The phone listed as the control for every hazard.

Limits and supervision

Why: HSE says the employer sets limits on what can be done alone, and that the level of supervision is a management decision based on the risk: the higher the risk, the more supervision.

Common mistake: No written limits, so the person decides alone whether to carry on in a situation the assessment never considered.

Equipment carried and first aid

Why: HSE mentions devices that raise the alarm by hand or by themselves, and first aid kits or training, including first aid on oneself, where the assessment shows a need.

Common mistake: Issuing an alarm device without training, or without checking that it works where the person goes.

Check-in method, main and backup means

Why: British Columbia's note prefers seeing the person or two-way voice, and accepts a one-way device that calls for help when not reset only where those are not practicable. Alberta allows radio, phone or another electronic means, or visits or contact by the worker where none is practicable. A backup covers the places with no signal.

Common mistake: One means of contact and no plan for when it fails.

Who receives the check-ins

Why: British Columbia requires a designated person to make contact at the set intervals and record the results. A named deputy covers breaks, shift changes and holidays.

Common mistake: Check-ins sent to a shared inbox or to a manager who is off duty.

Check-in interval

Why: HSE speaks of pre-agreed intervals, British Columbia requires the interval in the written procedure, set with the worker and the committee or representative, and Alberta asks for intervals that suit the hazard. None sets a length of time, so the box is for your procedure.

Common mistake: Copying an interval from another site or a device's default setting without looking at the risk or asking the worker.

Start, end-of-shift and return checks

Why: British Columbia requires a check at the end of the shift on top of the regular ones, HSE asks for a reliable way to confirm the person is back at base or home, and in US shipyards the employer accounts for the person at the end of the job or shift.

Common mistake: Regular checks all day and nobody noticing that the person never got home.

Where check-ins are recorded

Why: British Columbia requires the person who checks to record the results. The record also shows whether the plan works: how often check-ins are late or missed, and why.

Common mistake: Check-ins kept only in someone's call history.

Escalation steps if a check-in is missed

Why: British Columbia's procedure must say what happens if the worker cannot be contacted, including emergency rescue, and HSE asks for a way to respond to any incident. The six steps are our wording; the wait before each one comes from your procedure.

Common mistake: A plan that ends with trying again later, so nobody is ever sent.

Information for responders

Why: Whoever is sent, or the emergency services, needs the last known location and route, the vehicle, the task and its hazards, and any medical needs the person has agreed to share.

Common mistake: Giving the depot's address instead of the place where the person is working.

Test of the procedure

Why: HSE says technical solutions and emergency procedures should be tested regularly so that the person can be reached when something goes wrong. The form records the last and the next test; your procedure sets how often.

Common mistake: Finding out during a real alarm that the escalation number rings an empty office.

Missed check-ins and alarms

Why: One line for each event, including those that turn out to be nothing, shows whether the interval, the coverage or the method needs to change, and gives the review something to work from.

Common mistake: Not recording missed check-ins that ended well, so a gap in coverage is never fixed.

Training and fitness

Why: British Columbia requires training in the check procedure for the worker and for the person who checks. HSE adds personal safety or conflict resolution, the use of any device or system and, where workers judge risks on the spot, training and support for those decisions.

Common mistake: Training the lone workers and forgetting the people who receive their check-ins.

Review and sign-off

Why: Regulation 3(3) asks for a review when the assessment may no longer be valid or after a significant change, and British Columbia requires a review at least annually and after a change or a report that the procedure is not working. The person who works alone signs to show they have read the plan and agreed the interval.

Common mistake: Reviewing on a calendar date only, and never after a missed check-in.

Worked example

IllustrativeOne assessment for pumping station technicians at an invented water company in England, October 2026 (invented company, people, references and contacts)

The water company, its technicians, references and contacts are invented to show the method. No check-in interval or waiting time is shown because those come from your own assessment and procedure, agreed with the people who work alone; none of the texts we read sets one as a length of time. A real plan names real people, numbers and places, and is tested before it is relied on.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A paper plan and a phone list work for a few people who work alone at known times and check in with one person. They stop working when many people work alone across shifts and places, when the person receiving check-ins changes with the shift, when a missed check-in has to raise an alert by itself rather than when someone happens to notice, and when you need a record of every check-in and every escalation to review the plan.

Lone worker software runs check-ins and timers on a phone or a dedicated device, raises an alert when one is missed or an alarm is pressed, passes it along an escalation list, can show a location and keeps a log; some services route alerts to a monitoring centre. Ask how it behaves with no signal, a flat battery or an alert that nobody acknowledges, and whether the interval and the escalation steps can be set per task to match this plan. The list below follows the rule of the lone worker safety software guide. Being on it does not show that a product can hold the interval and escalation steps of your plan, so try a missed check-in on one of your own tasks before buying.

Same rule for every product: tagged “Lone Worker Safety”, “Fleet Safety”, “Safety Management” or “EHS Management”, with a sourced lone-worker check-in, alarm or monitoring capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

Ordered by how closely our sources document this process, not by quality. Sponsored placements are labelled. How lists are ordered

• MRI OnLocation · SOS, panic alarm and crisis notifications · Documented

  Product scope and boundaries

  Vendor source · Profile checked 12 October 2026

• SafetyLine Lone Worker · Check-in timers and missed check-in alerts · Documented

  Product scope and boundaries

  Vendor source · Profile checked 14 October 2026

• Vatix · Lone worker app · Documented

  Product scope and boundaries

  Vendor source · Profile checked 12 October 2026

• Samsara · Lone-worker SOS and fall detection · Conditional

  Product scope and boundaries

  Vendor source · Profile checked 14 October 2026

All 4 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.