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Guide · Workplaces
If your staff spend the day in a van, a taxi or on a customer’s site, there’s no first-aider down the corridor and no kit on the wall. This article explains what Northern Ireland law expects when people work alone, and the practical arrangements that get help to them when something goes wrong.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Your duty doesn’t stop at the door. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate first aid for their employees, and the guidance HSENI follows lists travelling, remote and lone workers as something your first aid needs assessment should cover. If you’re self-employed, the Regulations require you to have first aid equipment for yourself.
The law doesn’t list what a lone worker must have. The guidance points to a personal first aid kit for people who travel or are always on the move, a way to call for help, and extra arrangements, such as additional training, for remote work.
Our advice is to give every lone worker four things: a way to raise the alarm, someone who notices when they don’t check in, a kit that goes where they go, and training that matches what they could face.
What the law expects when someone works alone
Working alone is legal, and for drivers, delivery staff, carers, engineers and many others it’s simply how the job is done. What the law expects is that you’ve thought it through first. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 require a risk assessment, and if you have 5 or more employees you must record its significant findings.
First aid is part of that. The 1982 Regulations require employers to provide equipment, facilities and people that are “adequate and appropriate in the circumstances” for employees who are injured or become ill at work. Nothing limits that to your premises. HSE’s guidance on the Regulations (L74), which HSENI has adopted, says employers are responsible for the first aid needs of employees working away from the main site, and lists travelling, remote and lone workers among the factors to consider in your first aid needs assessment. HSE’s lone working guidance adds that homeworkers are owed the same as anyone else.
This is where the usual minimum falls short. HSENI says every workplace needs at least an appointed person and a stocked first aid kit. That works when people share a building. An appointed person at the depot can’t help a driver who has collapsed 40 miles away, so for lone workers the minimum is a starting point, not the answer.
Some work shouldn’t be done alone at all. HSENI says lone working can’t be justified where the controls can’t fully protect the worker, giving examples such as confined spaces, work at height in a harness, work near live electrical conductors and work under a permit that requires more than one person. For a few activities, such as diving and fumigation, specific laws require more than one person.
Why a first-aider at base doesn’t solve it
When someone works alone, the first person able to help is usually the injured worker, a passer-by or the ambulance service. So the arrangements have three jobs: raise the alarm, start whatever first aid is possible, and get help to the right place quickly. Four things do that.
A way to raise the alarm. For most people this is a charged mobile phone, which the guidance names as a way for lone workers to summon help. Check it works where they actually go. Where signal is patchy, they need another way, such as a satellite messenger or a call before they go out of range saying when they’ll be back in contact. The next section looks at apps and devices that help.
Someone who notices. A phone only helps if the worker can use it. After a collapse, a head injury or a cardiac arrest, they can’t. Agree check-in times that suit the risk of the job, a named person who watches for them, and what that person does when one is missed: call, try again, then send someone or call 999 with the last known location. HSE’s guidance calls for a robust system to confirm a lone worker has returned to base or home, and for these procedures to be tested regularly.
A kit that goes with them. The guidance suggests a personal first aid kit for people who travel long distances or are always on the move, or a kit kept in the vehicles they use. There’s no set contents list for travelling kits, so size it for the job and for how long help may take. Our article on what should be in a workplace first aid kit covers travel and vehicle kits, and someone should be named to restock each one.
Training that fits. Be realistic about what training does for someone on their own. Nobody can give themselves CPR. What a lone worker can do is control bleeding, treat minor injuries properly rather than ignore them, recognise when to call 999 early, and help a customer, passenger or member of the public who collapses in front of them. For some jobs that makes training well worth it. For a low-risk job close to help, a phone, a check-in and a kit may matter more than a certificate.
Lone worker apps and devices: what’s worth using
Technology can do the noticing for you, which matters most when the worker can’t make the call themselves. We don’t sell lone worker apps or devices, and we aren’t paid or given anything for mentioning any of the ones below. They’re examples, not a ranked list, and features and prices change, so check them before you commit.
| Option | What it does | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Built into the phone: Apple’s Check In (iPhone, iOS 17 or later), Crash Detection (iPhone 14 or later) and Emergency SOS via satellite; Android’s Safety Check in the Personal Safety app on supported phones | Free. Check In and Safety Check alert a chosen contact with the worker’s location if a timer runs out (Check In needs both people on an iPhone). Crash Detection calls 999 after a serious crash if there’s no response. Alerts go to a person you choose, not a monitoring centre. | Low-risk work with good signal, where someone reliable will act on the alert |
| Satellite messenger, such as Garmin inReach | Sends an SOS by satellite where there’s no mobile signal. A 24/7 centre receives the location and contacts the local emergency services. Needs a subscription. | Rural, upland or coastal work where signal can’t be relied on |
| Monitored lone worker service, such as StaySafe and Peoplesafe, both certified to BS 8484:2022 | An app or dedicated device sends alerts, missed check-ins and, on some devices, man-down alerts to a 24/7 alarm receiving centre, which follows an agreed escalation plan. Paid per user. | Higher-risk or isolated work, or larger teams where nobody can watch every check-in |
- Option
- Built into the phone: Apple’s Check In (iPhone, iOS 17 or later), Crash Detection (iPhone 14 or later) and Emergency SOS via satellite; Android’s Safety Check in the Personal Safety app on supported phones
- What it does
- Free. Check In and Safety Check alert a chosen contact with the worker’s location if a timer runs out (Check In needs both people on an iPhone). Crash Detection calls 999 after a serious crash if there’s no response. Alerts go to a person you choose, not a monitoring centre.
- Best suited to
- Low-risk work with good signal, where someone reliable will act on the alert
- Option
- Satellite messenger, such as Garmin inReach
- What it does
- Sends an SOS by satellite where there’s no mobile signal. A 24/7 centre receives the location and contacts the local emergency services. Needs a subscription.
- Best suited to
- Rural, upland or coastal work where signal can’t be relied on
- Option
- Monitored lone worker service, such as StaySafe and Peoplesafe, both certified to BS 8484:2022
- What it does
- An app or dedicated device sends alerts, missed check-ins and, on some devices, man-down alerts to a 24/7 alarm receiving centre, which follows an agreed escalation plan. Paid per user.
- Best suited to
- Higher-risk or isolated work, or larger teams where nobody can watch every check-in
BS 8484 is the British Standard for lone worker services. For a monitored service, ask for its certificate and whether its alarm receiving centre can pass alerts to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which issues unique reference numbers for lone worker services. A certified service is a reasonable sign the alarm will reach someone who acts.
Our view is to match the option to the job. A built-in phone feature with a dependable contact suits a driver in town. A satellite messenger earns its place where signal fails. A monitored service makes sense when the risk is higher, the work is isolated, or nobody at base has time to watch. Whichever you choose, it only works if the phone is charged, the feature is switched on and the contact knows what to do when an alert arrives.
Working it through: three lone workers
The four building blocks stay the same. What changes is how much weight each one carries, and that depends on the work, the location and how long help would take.
A delivery firm with 12 van drivers
Suppose a courier firm sends 12 employed drivers out on multi-drop routes around towns and suburbs. The likely injuries are from road collisions, slips on steps, lifting, cuts and the odd dog bite. Signal is good, people are usually nearby and an ambulance can reach most stops reasonably quickly.
We’d start with a kit in every van and someone at the depot checking them, drivers who know to call 999 first and the depot second, and a depot that notices when a route goes quiet for longer than it should. If you already track vans and stops, the gap is usually not information but a named person who acts on it. Most drivers carry a smartphone, so a built-in check-in timer for longer rural runs costs nothing. Training is worth considering for drivers who are out all day, but we wouldn’t make it the first fix if there’s no kit in the van and nobody watching for a missed stop. The depot also needs its own first aid for the staff who work there.
A self-employed taxi driver
Now suppose you drive your own taxi, working late shifts, often alone with passengers you don’t know. As a self-employed person, your duty under the 1982 Regulations is to have adequate and appropriate first aid equipment for yourself. Northern Ireland’s taxi inspection manual checks for a fire extinguisher but not a first aid kit, so this one is down to you.
A kit in the car is the minimum we’d expect. Add a phone mounted where you can reach it, Crash Detection or your phone’s equivalent switched on, and someone who knows your shift pattern and gets a check-in alert if you don’t finish when expected. Passengers aren’t covered by the Regulations, but a passenger collapsing in the back of a taxi is foreseeable, so we’d suggest a short AED and CPR course or Emergency First Aid at Work for any driver who wants to be ready to help. If you drive for an operator as an employee rather than as self-employed, your employer’s duties apply instead.
A field engineer on rural sites
Finally, suppose an engineer services equipment on farms and rural sites, alone, using power tools and sometimes ladders. Change two facts from the delivery firm: signal is unreliable, and an ambulance may take a long time to arrive. Those two facts change most of the plan.
The phone can’t be the only way to raise the alarm, so we’d agree check-ins before and after each visit and give the engineer a satellite messenger, or a monitored service whose device works by satellite. L74 says that where help may be delayed, employers should consider whether the kit is adequate, so we’d add a foil blanket, extra dressings and, where cutting tools create a real risk of serious bleeding, a tourniquet and haemostatic dressings with training to use them. Because the engineer may have to manage longer before help arrives, broader training such as First Aid at Work, or extra training in serious bleeding, is easier to justify than for the van drivers. Any task needing a harness at height or work near live conductors should be planned for two people.
Keeping the arrangements working
Lone working arrangements drift: phones go uncharged, kits get raided and check-ins become a formality. A few habits keep them honest.
Ask your lone workers what could go wrong. They know where the signal drops and which jobs feel risky, and the guidance expects you to involve them. Make sure they’re trained in the emergency procedures, not just given a copy.
Think about medical conditions. Someone with a medical condition may still work alone, but HSENI suggests seeking medical advice and discussing how the condition is managed, thinking about foreseeable emergencies as well as routine work.
If people regularly work at the same remote site, L74 suggests telling the emergency services in writing where it is and about any particular hazards. Review your arrangements when routes, sites or work change, and after any incident or near miss. Accidents involving lone workers are reportable in the same way as any other.
THE NORTHLIGHT TAKEAWAY
Can you get help to every lone worker?
01
Find who works alone
List everyone who works away from others, including drivers, homeworkers and staff on early or late shifts.
02
Set up the alarm
Give each a reliable way to call for help and a named person who acts when a check-in is missed.
03
Send a kit with them
Put a stocked kit where they work, sized for how long help could take.
04
Match the training
Train for the injuries they could face and how long they may wait, not for a certificate on file.
KEEP READING
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TRAINING FOR THIS TOPIC
Public dates in Belfast, Mallusk and Ballymena, or at your workplace.
Sources & Further Reading
Northern Ireland legislation: Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982, read with the Health and Safety (First-Aid) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017. Regulation 3, the employer’s duty, and regulation 5, self-employed people.
Northern Ireland legislation: Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000. Regulation 3, risk assessment and recording significant findings.
HSENI: Lone working and First aid at work.
HSE: First aid at work: Guidance on Regulations (L74), adopted by HSENI. Paragraphs 10 and 21 to 24 (travelling, remote and lone workers, and remote sites), paragraph 45 and Appendix 2 (travelling kits).
HSE: Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone (INDG73) and First aid at work: Your questions answered (INDG214), Table 1.
Department for Infrastructure: Taxi inspection manual.
NI Business Info: Ensure lone workers’ safety.
BS 8484:2022 Provision of lone worker services: code of practice, summarised in NSI Technical Bulletin 0063. PSNI: Lone worker services application for a unique reference number.
Apps and devices: Apple, Safety features; Android, Personal Safety app; Garmin, Garmin Response; StaySafe, NSI certificate; Peoplesafe, BS 8484.
Written by Northlight Training
Review sooner if Northern Ireland legislation or HSENI guidance changes.