In today’s world, threats to the personal safety of staff should not be ignored. Julie Bentley, Chief Executive of The Suzy Lamplugh Trust went on record recently to say “Violence & aggression in the workplace is becoming a major issue for all employers… and lone workers are particularly at risk”.

Good employers will be aware of this and wish to protect their staff and particularly their lone workers. They may well have already developed guidelines to minimise such exposure. Despite this, incidents affecting the personal safety of employees occur with frightening regularity.

The Health and Safety Executive stress the need for line-managers to understand the statutory responsibilities they have towards their workforce. Lone workers whose personal safety has been compromised are now suing employers under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Safety at Work Regulation 1999.

This has resulted in the Courts awarding one plaintiff a settlement in excess of £200,000 and heavily censoring Chief Executives.