You’ve had quite a few views but no responses. I’ll give it a go, although I am not entirely sure what you are asking and perhaps this lies at the heart at the lack of responses.

“It is not our legal responsibility to get them to and from work..”. This was a statement rather than a question however, while I accept that ordinarily the employer is unlikely to have a responsibility for the daily commute, I am not entirely convinced that you don’t have a ‘legal responsibility’ (depending on what you mean by that) for the sort of journeys you describe i.e. visiting clients at ‘off site’ locations, whether using public transport. Some might argue that if you reimburse expenses for mileage allowance, train, bus, taxi fares etc that you have accepted (some) responsibility for the journey.

“..I am thinking that surely it is our responsibility if it is outside of normal working hours even if they are not getting paid overtime as such???”. I am wondering why you think that there would be a responsibility if it were ‘out of hours’ but not during hours? I am not sure if the responsibility differs between the 2, but if it did I would think it would be the other way around wouldn’t it?

If your post is an HR question about the ‘status’ of the employee/employer relationship depending on whether they are getting paid or not, then that might be one for an HR forum. But you need to be clear about what you are asking.

There are of course numerous circumstances where someone would still be an employee/employed even if they weren’t getting paid at that specific time or they didn’t claim for that specific time i.e. they were doing unpaid overtime or they were on a contract that states that they need to whatever hours are necessary to accomplish their targets or whatever, or they are working to a contract price rather than something ‘time limited’ etc.

If on the other hand your post relates to the personal safety of these staff when travelling to and from these ‘appointments’, then that is what you need to ask; in simple terms. That will hopefully provide the answer(s) you seek.

Birchall,
From a legal liability perspective i.e. civil liability you will be liable for the safety of employees in the circumstances that you describe - visiting clients, customer, travellling to training courses or even attending conferences on behalf of the employer.

Much of the potenial risk will - in my opinion - be no different to any other traveller. And there is little that you could do to mitigate risk of, for example sending someone to Glasgow by train. However, if they travel by car it might be prudnet to agree to cost of an extra overnight stay to avoid risk of someone trying to drive home after a long day at a client/customer or conference/trade show etc.
For unaccompanied working you've started down the right track... there have been too many cases of poor systems and preocdures leading to attack/assault and even death e.g. care workers.

If overseas travel is concerned then more care might be needed, ranging from ensuring "jabs" are up to date, taking Govt advice on precautions to arranging security if employee was visiting a "war zone".

Hope this helps.
Phil