A customer swears at a receptionist, a tenant threatens a housing officer, or a delivery driver is confronted after refusing an unsafe drop. These incidents are not automatically just part of a public-facing job. Where abuse, threats or assault arise from the work, employers must treat them as health and safety risks: identify when they may happen, protect the people exposed and act on warning signs and incidents.
Work-related violence includes abuse and threats—not only assault
HSE defines work-related violence as an incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. That includes face-to-face, telephone and online abuse as well as physical attacks. It can come from customers, patients, clients, service users, students or other members of the public.
The connection to work matters. A personal dispute that happens to reach the workplace is different from aggression triggered by enforcing a rule, refusing a sale, collecting a debt, delivering unwelcome news, handling a delay or entering somebody's premises for work. Bullying, harassment and domestic abuse can require action too, but HSE is not the primary authority for those issues.
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers must protect workers' health, safety and welfare so far as reasonably practicable. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require an assessment of risks, including work-related violence, plus competent help, emergency arrangements, information and training.
HSE: violence and aggression at work ↗ · Management Regulations 1999, regulation 3 ↗
Find the real triggers, tasks and people at risk
Do not start with a generic statement that staff may meet challenging people. Map the situations that create exposure: lone or late work, cash or medicines, age-restricted sales, complaints, enforcement, refusals, long waits, home visits, isolated interview rooms, transport delays and contact with people whose history or current condition may increase the risk.
Use evidence from workers, supervisors, incident and near-miss records, complaints, security logs, sickness absence and local patterns. Ask about events that went unreported because staff thought nothing would change. Include cleaners, maintenance workers, agency staff and contractors who may enter the same environment without the information regular staff receive.
Consider who may face additional risk or greater consequences. Lone workers may lack immediate help. New starters, trainees, young workers, people with limited experience or language barriers, and workers whose disability affects communication, mobility or access to an alarm may need different controls. Consultation is essential because workers often know the trigger points and weak arrangements first.
Related guide: lone-working risk assessment → · Related guide: consulting employees on health and safety →
Control the situation before relying on de-escalation
Remove avoidable exposure first. Can a high-conflict meeting be held remotely or in a controlled room? Can cash, high-value stock or medicines be kept out of reach? Can clear booking information prevent an argument at the door? Where the hazard remains, combine controls rather than expecting one device or training course to solve it.
Design matters: good lighting and visibility, removing blind spots, suitable counters or screens, controlled access, safe interview-room positioning and an unobstructed exit. Work arrangements matter too: adequate staffing at predictable peak times, two-person visits where justified, reliable check-ins, accessible alarms, clear escalation authority and permission to end a call, meeting or visit when it becomes unsafe.
Information can reduce triggers by setting realistic waiting times, explaining refusal criteria and making complaint routes clear. CCTV, body-worn cameras and signage may deter or provide evidence, but they do not replace staffing, layout, supervision and emergency arrangements. If surveillance is used, manage privacy and data-protection duties separately.
Test the controls against the situations your team actually faces.
HR + SAFETY can help North East SMEs review public-facing tasks, lone work, premises layout, incident evidence and emergency arrangements as one practical system.
Discuss a workplace violence risk reviewTrain for the assessed risk—not a generic script
Training should help exposed workers recognise warning signs, communicate clearly, maintain distance, avoid blocking their own escape and follow the site's reporting and emergency arrangements. It should also make clear that abuse is not an accepted part of the job and that withdrawing from an unsafe situation is a legitimate control.
Practise realistic decisions: who takes over a difficult conversation, when a colleague summons help, what an alarm response looks like, where a lone worker goes, and when to call 999 rather than 101. Physical-intervention training is specialist and only proportionate where the risk assessment identifies a serious physical-aggression risk and the employer has a lawful, properly managed system.
Training cannot make an unsafe layout or inadequate staffing safe. Evaluate whether incidents, alarm responses and worker feedback show the arrangements actually work, and refresh instruction when the task, premises, clientele or known risks change.
Record, investigate and support after every significant incident
Make reporting quick and blame-free, including for verbal abuse, threats and near misses. Capture what happened, when and where; the task and trigger; who was exposed; injury or distress; witnesses; immediate action; and whether controls worked. Preserve relevant CCTV or communications lawfully and involve the affected worker in reviewing what should change.
Support must reflect the person, not a fixed script. Immediate medical attention, time away from public-facing duties, a safe journey home, a manager check-in, occupational-health input or counselling may be appropriate. Witnesses can also be affected. Do not force an immediate detailed account from someone who is shocked, but secure the essential facts and arrange a calm follow-up.
Review the risk assessment after incidents, credible threats, recurring low-level abuse or changes in service. Look for system causes such as unrealistic appointments, missing history, weak handovers, poor visibility or an alarm nobody answers—not only what the worker said in the moment.
HSE: reporting and learning from incidents ↗ · Related guide: workplace accident books →
Decide separately whether police and RIDDOR reports are needed
Police reporting and RIDDOR serve different purposes. Call 999 where there is immediate danger or a crime in progress; use the local force's non-emergency route or 101 where appropriate for violence or intimidation that is no longer an emergency.
Not every act of violence is RIDDOR-reportable. HSE says a work-related act must be reported where it results in death, a specified injury, or a physical injury that prevents a worker doing their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days. Work-related injuries causing more than three days' incapacity must be recorded even where they do not cross the reporting threshold. Apply the work-connection and injury tests carefully and keep the internal incident review separate from the reporting decision.
HSE: types of reportable incidents ↗ · Related guide: seven RIDDOR tests →
Workplace violence risk-assessment checklist
Legal duties and official guidance were checked on 11 October 2026. This guide addresses health and safety management of work-related violence; separate employment, equality, safeguarding, criminal-law and data-protection issues may also need advice on the facts.
- Define work-related violence to include verbal, telephone and online abuse, threats and physical attacks.
- Map high-conflict tasks, locations, times, customer groups and foreseeable triggers.
- Consult workers and include agency, temporary, lone and other vulnerable workers.
- Review incidents, near misses, complaints, security records and under-reporting.
- Remove avoidable exposure, then combine layout, staffing, information, access and alarm controls.
- Give role-specific training and a clear right to withdraw when a situation is unsafe.
- Test emergency, check-in and alarm-response arrangements in practice.
- Record incidents simply, investigate system causes and support affected workers and witnesses.
- Apply police and RIDDOR decisions separately, using the actual facts and injury outcome.
- Review the assessment after incidents, credible threats and changes to the work or premises.
Treat abuse, threats and attacks as foreseeable work risks where the work creates the exposure. A useful assessment identifies the actual trigger points, protects people with layered controls, gives workers a safe way out and turns every incident into an evidence-led review.
This guide provides general information for UK employers. It is not legal advice and should not replace advice based on the facts of a specific matter.