Harmful conduct connected with work
Abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment connected with frontline risk, physical violence and digitally enabled targeting can fall within this centre when they arise from work activity.
Scope and definition
Conduct connected with work, not every difficult interaction
HSE defines work-related violence as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This can include verbal abuse or threats in person, online or by telephone, as well as physical attacks.
Related subjects with their own owner
Lone working, safeguarding, domestic abuse, equality matters and data protection may overlap. They need the relevant competent guidance and should not be absorbed into one broad violence label.
Wider safety and conduct subjects
This centre does not govern all lone-working hazards, devices, cyber security, occupational health, dangerous dogs, professional boundaries, safeguarding or every unpopular interaction.
Employer responsibilities
Manage foreseeable violence risk as part of health and safety
HSE states that health and safety law applies to work-related violence as it does to other work risks. Employers should assess significant risks, consult workers or their representatives, implement effective controls, provide suitable information and training, and review whether arrangements work.
Current equality law also creates a preventative duty concerning sexual harassment. Use the EHRC and Acas guidance for that subject. This centre does not predict liability or replace employment-law advice.
- Identify exposureMap roles, tasks, decisions, locations and contact channels where harmful conduct is foreseeable.
- Consult and evidenceUse worker experience, incident records, near misses and service data to understand patterns.
- Control the riskChoose organisational, environmental, staffing, communication and training controls that fit the work.
- Record and reviewRecord significant findings, assign actions and review after incidents or material change.
Practical pathway
Build the system before asking staff to manage the moment
Training can support a control system, but it cannot compensate for unclear procedures, avoidable exposure, poor staffing, inaccessible reporting or a failure to act on known patterns.
- Find the riskConsult workers and examine tasks, environments, previous incidents, near misses and changing service pressures.
- Assess who may be harmedConsider frequency, severity, additional vulnerability, work design and access to timely support.
- Reduce exposureReview service design, information, environment, staffing, appointments, communication channels and escalation arrangements.
- Prepare peopleGive clear procedures, realistic practice, defined limits, withdrawal options and confidence to seek help early.
- Make reporting usableProvide a quick route for incidents and near misses, with no assumption that abuse is simply part of the job.
- Review and improveSupport affected workers, investigate system factors, test controls and assign corrective action.
During an incident
Prioritise immediate safety over continuing the interaction
Staff should follow their organisation's procedures, seek assistance early, create distance or withdraw where it is safe to do so, and contact emergency services when there is immediate danger. A script cannot cover every setting.
Managers should not expect an affected person to prove that an incident was serious before providing immediate support and recording the initial account.
After an incident
Support, record, report and learn
- Check immediate physical and psychological welfare, including witnesses.
- Record what happened, when, where, who was involved and what action was taken.
- Preserve relevant material without encouraging staff to continue unsafe contact.
- Check current HSE criteria where a work-related physical injury may be reportable under RIDDOR.
- Review whether work design, controls, information, training or management action should change.
Conflict and personal safety
Practise the responses that protect staff before risk escalates
Communication can reduce risk, but staff should not be made responsible for controlling every person or preventing every incident. Employers still need suitable risk assessment, secure work design, staffing, information, supervision, reporting and post-incident support.
Prepare the interaction
Before contact, identify the purpose, known history, foreseeable triggers, environment, colleague availability, communication route and authority to change or stop the work.
- Check current warnings and recent contact without relying on labels alone.
- Agree roles where two or more staff will attend or respond.
- Know the exit, alarm, transfer, check-in and manager-support route.
- Set the service decision and boundaries staff are authorised to explain.
Recognise changing risk early
Do not wait for shouting or physical contact. Fixation, pacing, target language, blocked movement, bystander behaviour, visible weapons, intoxication or reduced escape options may require a different decision.
Respond with calm structure and clear boundaries
Proven verbal techniques to calm hostile situations and stay in control during difficult interactions.
Withdraw and escalate before control is lost
Staff need explicit permission to leave, end a call, request support or activate an alarm when agreed thresholds are reached. They do not need to remain until violence is certain.
Report facts, support the worker and learn
Record exact threats or discriminatory words where relevant, observed behaviour, environmental factors, people present and actions taken. Link related incidents so repeated behaviour across teams or channels is visible.
Guidance and tool
Use one governing page for each practical question
Practise the responses that protect staff before risk escalates
Use this page for communication, withdrawal decisions and dynamic risk assessment before contact, during contact and after an incident.
Practise the responses that protect staff before risk escalatesDynamic risk assessmentManaging Risk
Use the HTML checklist to test current arrangements, identify gaps and assign actions. It does not certify legal compliance.
Managing RiskEvidence collection
Read the practical interpretation alongside the governing sources
SST curates the sources that support the employer pathway. External guidance remains authoritative within its own remit and should be checked for the facts of a particular case.
Evidence status: sources checked 14 July 2026. The six-step pathway and operational prompts are SST practical interpretation. They do not replace the source material or competent advice for a particular case.
Limits
Escalate when the issue is beyond general guidance
Call 999 where there is immediate danger or a crime in progress. Use the relevant police non-emergency route for other reports. Follow safeguarding, clinical, occupational health, HR and legal routes where those issues arise.
Serious threats, stalking, fixation, targeted behaviour or online publication may require prompt police, legal, safeguarding, security or data-protection advice. Do not ask an affected worker to investigate the person responsible.
Recording, livestreaming or online targeting may form part of the incident picture when it is used to intimidate, humiliate, publish personal information or encourage targeting. Public recording and employer monitoring are different issues and may require specialist legal or data-protection advice.
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