I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information – Please may you provide me with:
1.) As of today’s date, how many employees in your organisation are classed as lone workers at least some of the time? Please provide this as a number and a percentage of total staff.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local government is set at £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
Devon County Council does not hold a central list of lone workers; individual directorates, services and teams identify and manage lone workers within their area of management control.
As there are approximately 1,050 managers in Devon County Council, to comply with this request we would have to contact each manager to ask them how many lone workers they had within their team, and also ask them to provide the rest of the information requested.
It would take at least five minutes to contact each manager, which would make the amount of time needed to comply with this request well in excess of the 18 hour limit, even without taking into account the additional time needed for the managers to retrieve and collate the relevant information.
This response acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of your request.
2.) Please provide a breakdown of lone workers by department or role.
Please see the response to question 1.
3.) What is the gender split (male, female, other) of your lone worker population?
Please see the response to question 1.
4.) How many lone worker employees are provided with Personal Safety Devices (such as GPS-enabled panic alarms, wearable trackers, and/or mobile apps that can alert supervisors or emergency services if a worker is in distress)?
* Please provide this as a percentage
Devon County Council does not hold this information, as some teams share devices between lone workers. In the interests of providing advice and assistance, we can state that Devon County Council currently has 309 devices and 74 apps.
5.) How many safety-related incidents involving lone workers were reported in the time period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024?
If possible, please break this down by:
* Type of incident (accident, near-miss, physical assault, verbal abuse, harassment, etc.)
* Whether the employee had access to a Personal Safety Device at the time.
6 centrally reported incidents which comprise the following:
1 accident – no personal safety device
2 verbal assaults – did have access to personal safety device
3 physical assaults – did have access to personal safety device.
6.) Are employees provided with follow-up support (counselling, safety briefings, debrief sessions) after incidents?
There are a number of support mechanisms available to Devon County Council employees, including an Employee Assistance Programme which is available to all staff.
* Please indicate the number of employees who received such support following an incident as a percentage.
The Employee Assistance Programme is operated externally and is completely confidential, so Devon County Council does not hold this information.
7.) What is the staff turnover rate for lone worker roles in the time period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024?
Please see the response to question 1.