It’s the middle of the night, and the alarm company calls. Somewhere on your premises, a sensor has tripped, and someone needs to attend to check it out. For many UK businesses, that person is a manager, director or other trusted member of staff, rather than a security professional.
This routine has become so habitual for so many organisations that it’s not questioned. However, sending an employee to assess an unverified alarm activation, alone, at night, with no idea what’s waiting, carries a considerable amount of risk. This goes far beyond inconvenience to touch safety, employment law and insurance, sometimes all at once.
Here we set out what risk you’re exposed to when you send staff to respond to alarms, and what a solid alternative would look like.
Who responds to your alarm and have you ever questioned this?
For a large number of businesses in the UK, a rota of managers, directors and other trusted employees respond to alarms. When the call comes in, whoever's on call, or whoever answers the phone first, drives to the site to see what the situation is. Often this isn’t based on any deliberate policy - it’s just how things are done.
And this arrangement certainly isn’t unusual, nor is it necessarily a sign of bad management. But your alarm response policy is worth some consideration, because the person you’re sending is stepping into a genuine lone-working situation, and at the worst possible time of day.
The safety exposure: you're creating a lone worker at the worst possible moment
When you send someone to respond to an alarm you’re creating three different problems:
- The journey: When someone is woken in the middle of the night they inevitably have to drive while tired, something that measurably impairs judgement and reaction time. In fact, driver fatigue may be a contributory factor in as many as 20% of road collisions, and up to a quarter of serious and fatal road incidents. This means the drive to the premises might be the riskiest part of the whole call-out. Despite this, it’s something that many businesses never assess.
- The unknown on arrival: Various things can activate an alarm. It could be a fault, a fire, a flood, or an intruder. The person you send has no way of knowing what they're facing until they’re on site, and they’re probably not trained in conflict management or how to assess a scene because it simply isn’t part of their job description.
- The lone-working situation: An employee attending your site alone, at night, without immediate contact with colleagues is unquestionably a lone-working scenario, so lone-worker safety has to be considered here.
There should be a specific focus on the risks of violence. HSE's most recent Crime Survey data estimates that there were 689,000 incidents of violence at work in 2024/25. And while these weren’t all people responding to alarms, the scenario of a lone worker visiting a site alone at night certainly falls within the scope of this risk. Again, this emphasises the importance of a proper risk assessment for this and any other lone-working task.
The legal exposure: this is a health and safety duty, not a favour
An alarm rota is often simply a group of people who respond to calls because they’re willing and capable. But it’s worth noting that this is a work activity like any other, and should be given the same consideration.
According to Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, every employer has to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees. This responsibility doesn’t disappear in the middle of the night because someone is responding to an alarm, rather than doing their regular work duties.
It’s also worth being aware of Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the risks employees face at work. And if you have five or more employees you must record the significant findings. When you send someone to check out an unverified alarm at 2am this is absolutely a work activity carrying identifiable risks, therefore one that must be risk-assessed.
And then at the most serious end of the scale, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 defines a criminal offence where death results from the way an organisation’s operations were managed if it amounts to a gross breach of duty of care, and where senior management’s approach was a substantial factor.
Sending staff to respond to alarm calls isn’t necessarily a breach of any law. But for many businesses there is a good chance that this activity hasn’t been through the same risk assessment as other more day-to-day tasks. The good news is that once you’re aware of that gap, it’s easy to close.
HSE's own lone working guidance explains what reasonable, proportionate controls to risk look like.
Please note, this is general information and not legal advice, and nothing here should be read as a statement that any particular business is in breach of its duties.
The insurance exposure: the claim you haven't priced in
Another exposure that may not occur until something goes wrong is your insurance.
The British Insurance Brokers' Association's (BIBA) guidance for purchasers explains how this works in terms of alarm responses: in order to get a police Unique Reference Number, at least two named keyholders must be able to reach the premises within 20 minutes of being called, and this system is also used by many insurers when setting policy conditions. BIBA’s guidance also states that it’s prudent to attend such activations in pairs because of the risks detailed above.
It’s therefore worth having a close look at your insurance policy and a serious think about whether your response rota can meet the requirements. If your policy has a condition that you can’t meet and document consistently, your insurance company may have grounds to challenge a related claim. And if a responding employee gets injured, that’s a separate employer’s liability question.
None of this is a reason to panic. But it is a very good reason to check the specifics of your insurance policy and whether your current response process can reliably meet the requirements and provide a record of doing so every single time.
Why ‘the police will deal with it’ isn't a plan
Many organisations assume that the police will attend if your staff can’t, but that’s not actually how it works.
The way the police respond to business alarms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is a graded system, set out by the National Police Chiefs' Council.
A Level 1 response is immediate, though not guaranteed because it depends on priorities and resources. It’s also worth noting that three false calls for intruder alarms within a rolling 12-month period will result in this response being withdrawn completely. This is known as Level 3, meaning the police won’t attend and the responsibility is left solely with keyholders. Personal attack and hold-up alarms are held to a stricter threshold.
What professional alarm response actually looks like
So, who should respond to a business alarm activation? Ideally, a dedicated security service. Commissioning an alarm response service removes this duty from your staff and gives it to professionals who are trained in exactly this kind of work.
So, instead of a manager being woken in the middle of the night and driving alone to your premises, a trained security officer is dispatched straight to the site.
On arrival they carry out a thorough perimeter check, then enter your premises, assessing the scene and liaising directly with emergency services if necessary.
After securing your site they send you a written report of what happened and what action they took, giving you a documented record to support any insurance claims.
Hiring professionals immediately takes the burden off your staff. No one needs waking in the middle of the night, no one needs to drive tired or walk into an unknown situation, and no one faces unnecessary risks that may not have been adequately assessed. On top of this your business gets a consistent, accountable alarm response.
If you’d like to learn more about how this could work for your organisation, take a look at our professional alarm response service, which can be combined with keyholding services and alarm monitoring for complete around-the-clock cover. You can also read more about how keyholding, alarm response and monitoring work together.
Reviewing your alarm response policy: 5 questions to ask
If you want to review how your business currently responds to alarm calls, here are five key questions to ask:
- Who actually attends the scene when your alarm is activated? And is this a deliberate choice or just how things have ended up being done?
- Has the task of responding ever been properly risk-assessed? Has it been considered in the same way as any other lone-working activity?
- What happens if the person on the rota has been drinking or is too tired to drive safely? Do you have a protocol for this?
- What are staff instructed to do if they see signs of forced entry? Have they been trained for such a situation?
- What does your insurance policy require in terms of response time and documentation? Can your current response arrangement reliably meet what’s needed?
These five questions should be enough to reveal whether your current approach is a policy you’ve spent time considering, or just the way things are done.
Talk to our security experts about removing the burden of alarm response from your team's shoulders. Call 0800 716 586 or explore our alarm response service.
FAQs
Who should respond to a business alarm activation?
In an ideal world a trained security professional would respond to a business alarm activation. If the only option is your own staff, this task should go through the same risk assessment as any other lone-working activity.
Is it legal to ask an employee to respond to an alarm out of hours?
Yes, it’s legal to ask an employee to attend an alarm activation, but as it’s a work activity covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 3 of the 1999 Regulations, it should be risk-assessed like any other duty.
Will the police respond to a business intruder alarm?
Sometimes. A police response depends on a graded system and isn’t guaranteed. Furthermore it can be withdrawn after repeated false alarms.
Who is liable if an employee is injured responding to an alarm?
Liability depends on the specific circumstances and requires individual legal advice. What is clear is that employers have a duty of care under UK health and safety law, and that extends to activities such as alarm response.
What does a professional alarm response service do?
With this service a trained officer attends the site, checks the perimeter, enters the premises and makes a professional assessment, liaising with emergency services if needed. This removes the burden completely from your employees.