Lone Worker Protection - Are you doing enough?

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 introduced a new offence of corporate manslaughter which applies to corporate bodies in both the public and private sectors. It only applies in circumstances where an organisation owed a duty of care to the victim under the law of negligence. The offence can be punishable by an unlimited fine and orders for remedial action.


This law makes it easier for an organisation to be found guilty of manslaughter through the result of gross failings of senior management. The definition of ‘senior management' is not limited to the board of directors and includes those who have a significant role in the management of the whole or part of an organisation.

The HSWA imposes a duty on employers to "ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety and welfare at work of all its employees" and to ensure that persons not in their employment are "not exposed to risks to their health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable".
In addition, there are hundreds of health and safety regulations which set out more specific health and safety duties. For example, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must carry out a 'suitable and sufficient' risk assessment of their activities. As a result of this new law, duty of care and traceability must become a priority to senior managers in any organisation both in the public and private sector.

Risk assessment - Risk assessment has become a key process in the protection of the mobile workforce. A risk assessment is an important step in protecting the workforce as well as complying with the law. A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm whilst undertaking job functions. This allows the decision to be made as to whether or not enough precautions are being taken or whether more should be taken. Workers and others have a right to be protected from harm caused by a failure to take reasonable control measures.

A correctly deployed enterprise mobility solution will provide any mobile workforce with an effective tool to undertake risk assessments at key stages of their daily duties whilst out of the office. Not only this, the enterprise mobility solution will provide a traceable record for each risk assessment undertaken for that all important proof of compliance.
The Corporate Manslaughter Act has increased the need for health based services to provide duty of care on their employees whether mobile or otherwise and makes it easier for local authorities in breach to be prosecuted.


Proof of compliance will ultimately become a necessity and it will be up to senior managers to prove duty of care policies and procedures are working and are being used by their employees. Paper systems are problematic as mistakes can be made and paper proof can easily be lost. use of enterprise mobility solutions in providing duty of care compliance and lone worker protection will therefore become more prevalent over the next 18 months.

If you have already deployed an enterprise mobility solution or if you are planning to do so, ensure that you build in duty of care into your mobility workflows. For further advice relating to how Mobilitiy Solutions can support your business please contact mBusiness Consulting.