Last updated: May 2026

Review date: May 2027

General Policy Statement

Lone Workers as defined by the Health and Safety Executive are, “those who work by themselves without close or direct supervision.”

Paint Pots has a duty of care to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all our staff, as it is also the employee’s responsibility to take reasonable care of him/herself and others who could be affected by their work activity.

Aim

To ensure adequate control measures are put into place to safeguard all employees who work alone at any point during their contractual duties. All hazards should be identified, and all significant risks should be recorded on a risk assessment. These risks should be reviewed on a regular basis especially if there is a change in the situation; a near miss has occurred or an accident or incident has taken place.

Lone Workers

People working alone or in isolation from others may be at particular risk either because of circumstances of their day to day working or because an emergency may occur.

Risk control measures should take account of normal work and foreseeable emergencies, e.g. fire, equipment failure, illness and accidents. Employers should identify situations where people work alone and ask questions such as:

• Does the workplace present a special risk to the lone worker?
• Is there a safe way in and out for one person?
• Consider whether the work involves lifting objects too large for one person or whether more than one person is needed to operate essential controls for the safe running of equipment.
• Are women especially at risk if they work alone?
• Are young workers especially at risk if they work alone?
• Does the person have any medical condition that may affect their suitability to work alone?
• What happens if the person either becomes ill, has an accident or there is an emergency?

There are various work activities that may result in staff members working alone; some examples are:

• Staff who are required to work alone for all or most of the time, such as cleaning staff working when the setting is closed.
• Staff staying on to finish urgent work after others have left, or those who regularly work late or start early, before anyone else gets into the building.