A UK lone worker protection app is a practical way to meet an existing legal duty
Workplace violence remains a serious and growing concern for UK employers: the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales recorded 642,000 incidents of workplace violence in 2023/24, and a large share involved staff working without direct supervision. Employment tribunal claims are also rising sharply — the open caseload stood at 531,000 at the end of Q4 2025/26, up from 491,000 a year earlier — and the Employment Rights Act 2025 is set to raise the bar on harassment prevention from October 2026.
Against that backdrop, deploying a dedicated lone worker safety app is one of the most effective practical steps an employer can take to discharge its existing duty of care. It is not, however, a standalone legal requirement in its own right — no UK statute names an “app” as mandatory. What the law requires is that employers assess and manage risk, keep in touch with staff working alone, and be able to demonstrate they took reasonable preventive steps. A good app is simply the most efficient way to do all three, and to prove you did.
For property professionals, healthcare workers, facilities managers, social care providers, and any employer whose staff regularly work alone with members of the public, the underlying legal exposure is the same — and the cost of having nothing in place is severe.
What the law actually requires
The statutory framework governing lone workers sits across several pieces of legislation, none of which name specific technology.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a general duty on every employer, under Section 2, to ensure — so far as is reasonably practicable — the health, safety and welfare of employees, including those who work without direct supervision. Under Section 37, where an offence by a company is proven to have been committed with the consent, connivance, or through the neglect of a director or other senior officer, that individual can be prosecuted personally, alongside the company.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 add the practical layer: employers must carry out a risk assessment for lone working and put in place proportionate control measures.
HSE guidance document INDG73 (Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone) is the HSE’s operational guidance on how to meet the above duties in practice — it is not itself a source of legal obligation, but a tribunal or HSE inspector will look to it as the benchmark for what “reasonable” looks like. It recommends that employers keep in touch with lone workers, have a system to respond promptly if contact is lost, and give workers a practical means of raising the alarm in an emergency. It doesn’t specify a required device or technology, but it’s widely accepted that an informal system with no monitoring or escalation falls short of what “reasonable” steps look like.
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force on 26 October 2024. It introduced a positive, proactive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees — this duty is specific to sexual harassment, not harassment in general. Third-party harassment (by clients, customers or members of the public) is not yet subject to a standalone employer liability under current law; that is being introduced separately, from October 2026, by the Employment Rights Act 2025. Where a tribunal upholds a sexual harassment claim and finds the employer breached its preventive duty, it can increase the compensation award by up to 25%. This uplift applies to the entirety of the harassment compensation awarded, and because discrimination compensation is uncapped, it can represent a substantial sum.
The Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, raises the bar further from October 2026: the duty moves from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps,” and employer liability for third-party harassment is extended to cover all protected characteristics, not just sex. Separately, from April 2026, reporting sexual harassment (that has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur) carries protected whistleblowing status. Regulations further defining what “all reasonable steps” means in practice are expected in 2027, so some detail is still to be confirmed. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s 8-step guidance on preventing sexual harassment is the clearest current indicator of what a tribunal or the EHRC will expect to see.
The Fee for Intervention (FFI), charged by the HSE when an inspector identifies a material breach during an inspection, currently runs at £188 per hour for the full duration of the investigation — and an informal system such as an unmonitored WhatsApp group is the kind of gap an inspector is likely to flag.
What a good UK lone worker protection app should include
No law prescribes a specific feature list. But based on what HSE guidance, the Worker Protection Act 2023 and the EHRC’s 8-step framework actually expect employers to demonstrate, the following features are what a genuinely fit-for-purpose platform needs — mapped to the obligation each one helps you meet.
One-touch panic alarm widget From your phone’s open home screen, a single touch on the widget triggers the full suite of safety features automatically, with no need to open the app or remember a sequence of steps. That speed and simplicity matters when every second counts. Supports the “practical means to raise the alarm” expectation in HSE guidance.
Automatic video and audio capture on alarm trigger Activates the phone’s camera on an alarm event and transmits footage to a secure server. This is strong supporting evidence if an employer needs to demonstrate it took proactive steps under the Worker Protection Act 2023 and the EHRC’s step on monitoring and recording incidents.
Live GPS location tracking Real-time monitoring of field staff during solo sessions, supporting the risk-assessment and control-measure obligations under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Encrypted, tamper-proof audit trail Every GPS position, check-in, alarm trigger and session event logged in a timestamped format. This is the kind of documentary evidence a tribunal or the EHRC will look for when assessing whether an employer took “reasonable” — and, from October 2026, “all reasonable” — steps.
Private incident reporting channel A confidential in-app route for workers to report harassment or safety concerns outside their direct management line. Supports the EHRC’s guidance on accessible reporting routes, and is relevant context given sexual harassment reports gain whistleblowing protection from April 2026.
Supervisor dashboard A real-time web portal giving management oversight of all active lone workers, supporting an employer’s non-delegable duty of care under HSWA 1974.
Compliance documentation pack Policy templates and risk assessment frameworks delivered alongside the software, so the technology sits within a proper governance framework rather than standing alone.
Is your current lone worker system built to help you demonstrate compliance? The Sentry provides all of the above for just £39.50 per user per year, with a full compliance documentation pack included. Book a free demo →
Who needs a UK lone worker protection app?
Any employer whose staff regularly work without direct supervision faces broadly the same legal exposure, regardless of sector. The Sentry is used across a growing range of industries, including:
- Estate agencies and letting agencies — negotiators conducting solo property viewings with unvetted clients, often in the evenings and in unoccupied buildings
- Property management and facilities management — inspectors, maintenance operatives, and housing officers attending properties alone
- Healthcare and social care — community nurses, support workers, and domiciliary carers visiting patients at home without colleagues
- Local government and housing associations — housing officers, community development workers, and enforcement officers conducting field visits
- Retail and field sales — lone representatives conducting client meetings, deliveries, or audits in unfamiliar environments
- Charities and the voluntary sector — outreach workers, counsellors, and field staff serving vulnerable populations
Why BS8484 hardware isn’t the only route to compliance
Some of the UK’s longest-established lone worker safety providers, such as Peoplesafe and SoloProtect, are built around dedicated wearable devices and in-house or third-party Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs), designed to route alarms to a monitoring centre for police or emergency dispatch. Peoplesafe, for example, leases devices to customers for the length of the contract and operates its own BS8484-accredited ARC. That model brings real overheads with it: devices to issue, track and eventually return, and a third-party call centre sitting between your worker and the people who actually know them.
None of the major providers publish pricing or contract terms publicly — Peoplesafe, SoloProtect and others all require a sales call or demo to get a quote. The Sentry takes the opposite approach: pricing is public, fixed, and simple — £39.50 per user per year, with no hardware to issue, no ARC overhead, and no call to book before you find out what it costs.
BS8484 is a British Standard that governs lone worker device services connected to police-response ARCs, and it’s heavily marketed by hardware- and ARC-based providers. It is not a statutory legal requirement for most SME employers — including those in the property sector, healthcare, retail, or facilities management. The compliance framework these employers actually need to satisfy is the general duty of care under HSWA 1974 and, where relevant, the EHRC’s 8-step guidance — both of which The Sentry addresses directly, without the cost or complexity of ARC-connected hardware.
With The Sentry, there’s nothing to issue, charge or lease: your team’s own smartphones do the job, alarms route straight to the people who know them best, and you know the price before you’ve even booked a demo.
Why informal check-ins (e.g. WhatsApp) leave gaps
A common substitute for a dedicated app is an informal group chat, and it has real limitations against what HSE guidance and the Worker Protection Act 2023 expect to see:
No harassment prevention tools for field staff — a chat thread has no automatic video or audio capture to evidence an incident, and no confidential channel to report harassment away from the immediate management line, both of which matter under the Worker Protection Act 2023.
No guaranteed response — there’s no monitored, dedicated pathway; someone has to happen to be looking at the right moment.
No one-touch alarm — raising the alarm means opening WhatsApp, finding the right chat, and typing a message, rather than a single touch on a dedicated widget from your phone’s open home screen that triggers the full safety response automatically. That extra sequence of steps isn’t realistic in a genuine emergency.
No audit trail suitable for a tribunal — a chat thread isn’t built to serve as timestamped, tamper-proof evidence of what happened and when.
An employer relying solely on this kind of informal system would find it harder to evidence “reasonable steps” if a claim or an HSE inspection followed — but it’s the absence of a proper system, not the absence of any specific product, that creates the exposure.
The Sentry: a UK lone worker protection app built for how your team actually works
The Sentry was designed to give SMEs the operational infrastructure that legacy platforms built for heavy industry don’t prioritise — at a price point that makes it accessible regardless of company size.
At £39.50 per user per year, The Sentry includes every feature above, with no hardware to procure, no IT integration required, no Alarm Receiving Centre overhead, and no setup fee. Deployment across a team typically takes a single working day.
Where hardware-based providers route panic alarms to third-party call centres, The Sentry routes directly to your nominated internal contacts — people who know your team and your sites. Colleagues are often geographically close by, and everyone with access can see exactly where an alarm has been triggered on the in-app map, so the nearest and best-placed person can choose to respond and assist. Teams like this are often best placed to help in a real emergency, and they have a genuine, vested interest in each other’s safety and wellbeing — something a distant call centre can’t replicate. And because it runs on the smartphones your staff already carry, there’s no hardware to distribute, charge, or replace.
Every account includes the full compliance documentation pack: policy templates, risk assessment frameworks, and guidance mapped to the EHRC’s 8-step framework — the paperwork that helps demonstrate proactive action if it’s ever needed.
With the standard tightening from October 2026, employers who haven’t yet put a dedicated system in place should start reviewing their options now — and a well-designed platform like The Sentry can be live across your team within a day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a lone worker protection app and do I need one in the UK? A lone worker protection app is software that monitors the safety of employees working without direct supervision. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, UK employers hold a duty of care to manage risks for isolated staff, and HSE guidance recommends a practical means of raising the alarm and a system to notice if a worker fails to check in. If any of your staff work alone with members of the public, in empty premises, or in remote locations, an app is a practical — though not the only — way to meet that duty.
What features should a UK lone worker protection app have? There’s no legally prescribed feature list, but The Sentry is built around the EHRC’s 8-step framework for preventing sexual harassment. Its technology — one-touch alarm widget, GPS tracking, encrypted audit trail, and private reporting channel — maps directly to risk assessment (step 3), reporting (step 4), third-party harassment (step 7), and monitoring and evaluation (step 8). The remaining steps — policy (1), staff engagement (2), training (5), and handling a complaint (6) — are HR processes rather than app functions, which is why The Sentry also includes a compliance documentation pack to help employers put those in place.
How much does a lone worker protection app cost in the UK? Pricing varies across the market, with hardware-based, ARC-connected platforms generally costing more due to physical devices and call-centre overheads. The Sentry costs £39.50 per user per year on flexible annual terms, with no hardware requirements and no setup fee.
Does a lone worker protection app need to be BS8484 certified? No. BS8484 is a British Standard for Alarm Receiving Centre operations relating to police response, aimed at severe physical hazards in industrial settings. It is not a statutory requirement for the majority of UK employers, including property agencies, healthcare providers, facilities managers, and retail businesses.
How quickly can a lone worker protection app be deployed across my team? The Sentry can typically be deployed across a full team within a single working day, including staff briefing and supervisor dashboard setup, with the compliance documentation pack available immediately.
What happens if an incident occurs and we don’t have a compliant system in place? If an employment tribunal upholds a sexual harassment claim and finds the employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it, the tribunal can increase the award by up to 25%, and discrimination compensation is uncapped. Separately, if an HSE inspection identifies a material breach of health and safety law, the Fee for Intervention (currently £188 per hour) applies for the duration of the investigation.
Rebecca Evans is founder of The Sentry. With 18 years’ experience as a letting agent, she brings first-hand knowledge of the property industry and the practical challenges facing property-focused SMEs, including the employment law obligations that affect them.
Ready to protect your team and your business? The Sentry is the UK lone worker protection app built for employers who need to meet their duty of care and prove it — protecting their company against tribunals and compensation claims. GPS tracking, one-touch panic alarm, automatic video capture, encrypted audit trail, private incident reporting, and a full compliance documentation pack — all for £39.50 per user per year.