Running a business from home changes your security picture in ways a standard home-insurance policy and a standard alarm system don’t automatically account for. Stock, client visits, cash handling and lone working all raise the stakes beyond “keep the house locked” – and in Great Britain, some of that isn’t just good practice, it’s a legal duty under health and safety law even when the “workplace” is your own front room.
Yes, home-based work is covered by health and safety law
It’s a common assumption that HSE rules stop at the office door. They don’t. The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on home working is explicit that employers “must make sure your risk assessment covers home workers,” and its lone working guidance confirms the duty extends to “anyone who employs or engages lone workers,” including contractors, freelancers and self-employed people working alone – a category that covers most home-based business owners by default. If you employ anyone who works from your home premises, or you work alone from home yourself in a self-employed capacity, this isn’t guidance you can assume doesn’t apply to you.
What a “proportionate” home risk assessment actually looks at
HSE’s guidance is careful to say a full workplace-style visit usually isn’t necessary, describing a “balanced and proportionate approach” instead. In practice that means considering how the work is actually done, how long it takes, what could realistically go wrong, and what control measures are reasonable – assessed through a self-assessment questionnaire, a phone or video conversation, or written guidance provided to the home worker, rather than an inspector turning up. HSE does say a visit becomes more appropriate where the work involves significant hazards, or where a worker has a condition that needs specific accommodation – both of which can apply to home businesses handling stock, tools, chemicals or client visits rather than pure desk work.
Where security specifically comes in
Lone working guidance treats security-relevant scenarios – home visits by clients, deliveries, cash handling, or simply being isolated with no one else aware of your situation – as risks that need a plan, not just an assumption that nothing will go wrong. HSE’s position is that “the law requires employers and others to think about and deal with any health and safety risks before people should be allowed to work alone,” and that duty sits with the employer even when the employer and the lone worker are the same self-employed person. That means a written (even if brief) note of what the actual risks are – an unknown client visiting your home, cash or stock left accessible, working hours when no one else is around to notice a problem – and what you actually do about each one, holds up far better than an assumption that a domestic burglar alarm covers it.
What insurers separately expect
None of this replaces checking your insurance position directly, because HSE compliance and insurance conditions are two different things that happen to overlap. Standard home contents policies are written around domestic use and commonly exclude or cap cover for business stock, business equipment, and any liability arising from clients visiting the property, unless the insurer has been told about the business use and has adjusted the policy accordingly. A home business that keeps meaningful stock value, cash, or regularly receives visitors should expect an insurer to ask about the actual security measures in place – locks, alarm, safe rating, visitor procedure – before confirming cover, in much the same way a commercial policy would.
Practical steps that satisfy both sides
A short written risk note covering how client visits are handled (do you ever see someone alone, and does anyone else know when), how cash or stock is stored and whether it’s insured at its actual value, and what happens if you’re working alone and something goes wrong, addresses HSE’s proportionate-assessment expectation and gives you something concrete to hand an insurer if they ask. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, but HSE’s own emphasis is that the assessment has to actually happen and be revisited, not exist only as an assumption in your head.
Why “I only work from home occasionally” doesn’t remove the duty
It’s tempting to assume this obligation only applies to a business that operates from home full-time, but HSE’s framework doesn’t set a minimum threshold of hours or days before the duty to assess applies. A tradesperson who occasionally sees clients at home, a consultant who works from home two days a week, or someone who stores stock at home only during busy periods is still subject to the same underlying duty to think through the risks – the proportionate response for occasional use is simply a lighter-touch assessment than a full-time operation would need, not no assessment at all.
How this connects to the rest of a home’s security setup
A home business risk note doesn’t need to be created from nothing – it can build directly on security measures already in place for the household generally, such as an existing alarm system, door and window locks, or CCTV coverage, with the assessment simply asking whether those measures are actually adequate for the added risk a business brings (higher-value stock, more visitors, cash on the premises) rather than starting from scratch. Reviewing existing home security specifically through that business-risk lens is often the fastest way to produce something genuinely useful, rather than treating it as an entirely separate exercise.
The bottom line
Working from home doesn’t exempt a business from health and safety law, and HSE’s duty to assess lone working and home working risks applies to self-employed people as much as to employers with staff. Treating security as part of that assessment – rather than a separate, informal decision – is also usually the fastest way to satisfy an insurer asking the same questions from a different angle.
Sources
- Health and Safety Executive, “Managing home workers’ health and safety” – hse.gov.uk/home-working/employer/risk-assessment.htm
- Health and Safety Executive, “Lone working” – hse.gov.uk/lone-working