We are moving premises shortly and the layout of the building is different to the current set up in that the workshop will be a room remote from the offices or other areas of potential activity. The majority of the time there will be several people in there but it is possible an engineer could be on his own for a prolonged period. Machinery involved would be high risk such as laithes, milling machines, welders, etc. I have read various documents regarding lone working and am aware of things that can be put in place but I am unsure of the best course of action in this instance. My 1st thought is 'no lone working in the workshop' but what time period constitutes 'lone working''? 10 minutes, 2 minutes, 30 minutes? Would he have to down tools whilst the other person in the room went to the toilet? I have considered CCTV with a monitor in the office and panic buttons by machines but neither are as robust as having other people in the room. Has anyone had a similar issue and what did you find worked best for you? Of course, RA's, SSOW, thorough training, well maintained & guarded machines, 1st aid provision and fire suppression will be in place but incidents still happen and if nobody is there to assist quickly a bad situation could prove fatal which is why I am leaning towards my initial though of nobody works alone in the workshop on machinery. Feedback most welcome. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I have been pondering on this for a number of days and to go down the road of 'no lone working' would be restrictive for us. The number of occasions where there will be a need for someone to be alone in the workshop would not be significant but even so, safeguards will need to be in place. My current train of though is going to a lone worker alarm (panic button and motion sensor). When I say remote, the workshop is probably only 50 metres from the office block so help would be there quickly when the alarm was raised. Thoughts?

Walker - Yes, I have conjured up this scenario. Not sure if it realistic though given the emergency stops, interlock guards, etc.......................

Controlling the risk of lone working in a workshop is not going to be easy. Have you considered managing the high risk machining work so that it is not done during lone work periods? One issue with CCTV in the office is that people become blind to it. One company I worked for had a trailer stolen from the yard, during the day with full CCTV coverage. It was all on the recording but nobody in the office noticed. Cannot remember the make but I have used a smart identification lanyard (lone working alarm) system. The lanyard was a personal telemetry monitor connected to the mobile phone network. They had numerous functions to manage lone workings like panic alarms, movement censors and location mapping. You could actually ring it and hear anything going on, and set it so they had to acknowledge it by pressing a button or an alarm would be sent.

Thanks for the replies. Like any RA the 'do you have to do it'? is the 1st question I need to ask myself/the company. As already stated, ideally the answer should be no. If the answer has to be yes then it appears the pager/personal alarm in additional to the control measures I mentioned in my 1st post is the way to go.................

Personally, I would be doing everything in my power to prevent lone working in an engineering workshop. I would not allow my employees to do it when I had such a place. I have my own workshop now, & I HATE having to work there alone, I am very on edge and super careful. I don't believe that lone worker alarms would be adequate. Death from electric shock comes very quickly and you need someone competent to sort that out lest they become another casualty. The victim would quite possibly be incapacitated from the electric shock, and unable to activate the alarm, there is also the possibility that they would come to rest in such a position that the alarm may delay its activation for just too long. Also, death from loss of blood from serious laceration injuries comes quickly. The affect on a victim of such an injury could be such a level of shock that they could be incapacitated and unable to activate the alarm. Both of these scenarios are possibilities and there is the potential that a lone worker alarm would not be fast enough, if it relied on the prostrate or not moving mechanism. Also, you have the possibility of false alarms, what if thee operative has to lay on the floor to undertake works, and stops still for a little while to think about the task at hand laid flat on their back? I've done this too, many times, laying flat on a cold concrete floor to think about the job has a funny way of focussing your thoughts to get the job done and get off the cold floor somewhere warm! Then there is the possibility of intruders? Do you have Oxy-Acetylene? Marvellous tool, much maligned and too many people are afraid of it. Mind it seems that the FRS have had some research done, and it’s not considered as bad as it was. However, that is an aside, my point is if an issue with any oxy-fuel gas cutting and welding equipment were to occur when there was a single operative deeply engrossed in their welding/cutting work, then this could go un-noticed until it was such an issue that it could be a total loss situation. I KNOW of a large upmarket car dealership that was a total loss because of a fire, OK, not oxy-fuel gas, but, if the nearest person to the origin of the fire had acted promptly and correctly, then the fire would have been prevented. I also have a personal friend who very often works in his engineering workshop on his own. He is self-employed. A few months ago he called in to see us at home, he was a bit stiff moving around, we thought it was his age, he is around 70, but still working so we did think it unusual. We enquired as to what had happened. It transpires he was working late in the workshop one evening a few weeks before. Nothing unusual in that, his family are used to it. He got his overalls caught in a large horizontal milling machine. The machine picked him up off the floor by his overalls and spun him around the spindle 7 times before he could stop the machine. He then had to extricate himself from the tangled mess. Luckily he had NO serious lacerations, very bad bruising, and nothing broken, very sore and stiff for a few months mind. This guy has been doing this all his life. Now I’m not saying that he was being careless, and I’m not saying that he is as safety conscious as he perhaps could or should be. BTW, he knows it was 7 times as that was the number of times the lights flashed in front of his eyes as he thought that he was going to die (the lights in the roof of the workshop). His words, probably not his exact words, as I would get moderated if I used them! He is fine now and still working. I always bring these two examples up these days when I discuss lone working in engineering. IMHO, not a good plan. HTH

Adrain. If you are looking for support, or justification, that would allow lone working in a high-risk occupation; I doubt you will get it here. That you are looking for a reason to allow it speaks volumes. Is there machinery powered by electricity? Is there rotating machinery that an operator COULD have access to? Do accidents happen even in well-planned and well-manned operations? How long does death take to occur if a person is electrocuted, or has a severed artery and is unconscious?