A practical guide to what a good COSHH risk assessment template contains, with a field-by-field walkthrough and a worked example you can adapt.

A template helps record the workplace assessment. The Great Britain COSHH Regulations 2002 prescribe no particular form. Employers with five or more employees must record significant findings and the steps taken to comply; every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment before relevant work.

This page explains what a good template includes, walks through each field, and gives a worked example you can adapt. If you need the process for filling it in, see how to carry out a COSHH risk assessment. For the broader picture on what COSHH covers, see what COSHH is.

You can download our COSHH risk assessment template here.

What a good template needs to contain

A COSHH risk assessment template needs to do four jobs at once. It has to identify the substance, evaluate the risk, record the controls, and be auditable as evidence of compliance. Each of those drives specific fields on the form.

The mandatory content comes from Regulation 6(4): the assessment must record the “significant findings” — meaning the conclusions, the rationale, and the controls, not every minor detail considered along the way.

The practical content goes further. A template recording only the minimum is hard to use day-to-day. One that captures the supplier, batch reference, storage location, emergency response and review date is more useful to supervisors and workers, and gives a defensible audit trail.

Field-by-field walkthrough

Annotated COSHH risk assessment template with callouts.

A good COSHH risk assessment template typically has the following fields, organised in roughly the order you fill them in.

Substance identification

The product name as it appears on the supplier label, plus any internal reference number, the supplier’s name and contact details, and the date of the safety data sheet you’re working from. The SDS reference matters because safety data sheets are revised periodically — citing the version you used tells future reviewers whether their version is more recent.

Substance description and use

A short paragraph saying what the substance is (oxidising liquid, organic solvent, biological agent) and what it’s used for in your workplace. This grounds the assessment in your specific context rather than a generic chemical description.

Hazard classification

The CLP hazard pictograms that apply, copied across from Section 2 of the safety data sheet. Nine pictograms can appear: explosive, flammable, oxidising, gas under pressure, corrosive, acute toxicity, health hazard, serious health hazard, and environmental hazard. COSHH symbols and their meanings covers each one. The signal word (“Danger” or “Warning”) goes here too, along with the H-statements (hazard statements like H315 “causes skin irritation”) that summarise the specific hazards in standardised wording.

Workplace exposure limit (WEL)

Record applicable WELs and their reference periods from the current EH40 list. If none applies, state that clearly and assess appropriate controls. Lack of a WEL does not imply safety; ALARP additionally applies to carcinogens, mutagens and asthmagens.

Quantities and frequency of use

How much of the substance is used, how often, and over what period. “200ml per shift, daily” is more useful than “small amounts”. This drives the exposure assessment in the next section.

Who is exposed

Job roles or named individuals (depending on workplace size). Note any vulnerable groups — pregnant or breastfeeding workers, young workers under 18, workers with relevant medical conditions. Include indirect exposures: cleaners, maintenance staff, members of the public where relevant.

Routes of exposure

Inhalation, skin contact, eye contact, ingestion, injection or puncture. Tick the applicable boxes and note the most significant route for this substance and use. This drives the control selection.

Level of exposure and risk evaluation

A judgement on how much exposure is likely under current conditions, and whether that’s adequately controlled. Use whichever scale your organisation works to — many use a simple low/medium/high rating. The judgement is for the substance as actually used in your workplace, not the substance in the abstract.

Existing control measures

Record the actual controls and specifications needed for the task. For gloves, identify a suitable product and chemical compatibility, contact time and replacement arrangements; a material or standard number alone does not establish protection.

Additional controls required

Where existing controls aren’t adequate, what needs to be added. This is the action plan. Include who’s responsible, what they’re going to do, and by when.

Storage and handling requirements

Where the substance is stored, in what kind of container, with what segregation from incompatible substances. Many assessments link out to a separate site storage plan. For the specifics on cabinets and segregation, see COSHH storage requirements.

Emergency arrangements

What to do if there’s a spill, an exposure, or an emergency. Include first aid measures (from Section 4 of the SDS), spill response (Section 6), and fire response (Section 5) where relevant.

Health surveillance

Record whether Regulation 11 requires health surveillance, using its exposure and detection criteria. Include any relevant Schedule 6 substance-and-process requirements and who will advise on or deliver the checks.

Training requirements

What workers need to be trained on for this substance — recognition of the symbols, how to use the controls, what to do in an emergency. Workers can’t be expected to comply with controls they haven’t been trained on.

Review information

The date of the assessment, who carried it out (name and role), the planned next review date, and triggers that would prompt an earlier review.

A worked example

Worked example of a completed COSHH risk assessment for a chlorine-based bleach

This illustrative example shows the information to collect for a bleach product. It is not an assessment for a real formulation or a ready-to-use safe system. Replace every placeholder using the supplier’s current information and the actual task.

Substance: Record the exact bleach product, concentration, container size, supplier and current SDS reference. Do not use the example product name as a substitute for identifying the real chemical.

Description and use: Record the cleaning task and required dilution. Consider a less hazardous method first. Do not decant bleach into a trigger spray unless the product is expressly intended for that use and the resulting exposure is adequately controlled.

Hazard classification: Copy the actual product’s classification and warnings from its current label and SDS. Bleach products differ in concentration and formulation; do not assume all have identical pictograms or hazard statements.

WEL: Check relevant components and possible reaction products. EH40 lists a chlorine short-term limit of 0.5 ppm over 15 minutes. This does not permit mixing bleach with other cleaners or establish that a particular bleach task is safe.

Quantities and frequency: Record the measured amount used, dilution, frequency, task duration and application method. These must describe the real work.

Who is exposed: Consider cleaners, other workers, building occupants and anyone entering during or after cleaning.

Routes of exposure: Consider skin and eye contact, inhalation of spray or hazardous reaction products, and accidental ingestion. Base the assessment on the actual application method.

Risk evaluation: Assess the actual formulation, contact, ventilation and controls. Do not allocate a generic medium rating or proceed with work where exposure is not adequately controlled.

Existing controls: Record safe dilution and application, suitable chemical-resistant gloves and eye protection, ventilation, labelled containers and the prohibition on mixing cleaning products.

Additional controls: Consider substitution and a non-spray application method, improve ventilation or change the task where necessary, and brief staff before use. FFP2 and FFP3 particle filters do not protect against chlorine gas. Obtain competent advice if RPE is needed rather than specifying a generic vapour mask.

Storage: Follow the product SDS. Keep bleach securely away from acids, ammonia and other incompatible substances with separate suitable containment. Two shelves in one cabinet are not a reliable segregation rule.

Emergency arrangements: Follow the actual product’s first-aid instructions. For a chemical burn, seek urgent medical help and begin appropriate water irrigation; do not try to neutralise the chemical on the body. If accidental mixing releases gas, leave the area, keep others away and call emergency services as needed. Only trained, equipped people should deal with a spill under the assessed procedure.

Health surveillance: Assess skin exposure and wet work. Arrange appropriate checks where Regulation 11 criteria are met; do not wait for repeated dermatitis or assume surveillance is unnecessary because the product is a familiar cleaner.

Training requirements: Brief cleaners on the actual product, dilution, controls, incompatibilities and emergencies. Refresh instruction when needed; an annual interval is not a universal legal requirement.

Assessor and review: Record the competent assessor, assessment date, agreed review interval and triggers for immediate review. Enter real dates when completing the workplace assessment.

Keep the record concise enough to use while retaining the detail needed for the risk. There is no legal requirement or safety benefit in forcing every assessment onto one A4 page.

The COSHH register

Sample extract from a workplace COSHH register.

A COSHH register is a useful inventory linking substances or processes to their assessments and safety information. It is not a separately prescribed statutory form, and inspectors do not have a fixed rule to request it first.

The register and the individual assessments work together. The register tells you what substances you’ve got; the assessments tell you what to do with each one. Some businesses combine them into a single substance-by-substance document; others keep them separate. Either is acceptable so long as the information is complete.

Retention requirements

Keep assessments current and accessible. Decide retention of superseded versions according to the work, potential long-term risks and other applicable duties; COSHH does not set a general one-year rule for old assessments.

Keep monitoring records representative of identifiable employees’ personal exposure for at least 40 years from the last entry; keep other monitoring records for at least five years. Health surveillance is not a condition of the longer monitoring retention period.

Health surveillance records must be kept for 40 years from the date of the last entry, under Regulation 11. The long retention period reflects the latency of occupational diseases — many take decades to manifest, and without long-retained records the link to historical exposure can’t be established.

Use a documented retention schedule for each record category and appropriate access controls. Do not automatically retain all personal information for 40 years or combine confidential clinical records with general training and assessment files.

Where to get a template

You can build your own from the fields above, adapt a public template (HSE’s COSHH Essentials tool produces substance-specific control sheets that work as a starting point), or use a sector-specific template from a trade association. The right template fits your work — a template designed for a chemical plant is poorly suited to a hair salon and vice versa.

Here’s a template we built that you can use.

The most common compliance failure isn’t an absent template; it’s one filled in when the substance was first introduced and never reviewed. Building the review cycle into the template — a clear next-review date, a clear owner, a calendar reminder — is the most effective way to keep the assessment alive. Workers using the template need training on how to read it under the Regulation 12 training duty, which is one of the topics covered in structured COSHH Training.

Frequently asked questions

Is the template legally compliant?

No blank template guarantees compliance. The completed assessment must be suitable and sufficient for the actual work and the required controls must be implemented. Regulation 6(4) concerns recording significant findings and the steps taken to comply where the employee threshold is met.

Can I edit a template I’ve downloaded?

Yes. The structure and fields are for your benefit. Adapt them to your work — add fields you need, remove fields that don’t apply. The content is what matters, not the format.

Do I need to use HSE’s template?

No. HSE provides templates as examples but using them isn’t a legal requirement. Your own template, a commercial template, or a sector-specific template are all acceptable provided they cover the required content.

Is the COSHH register the same as the COSHH assessment?

No. The register is an index of every hazardous substance in your workplace. The assessment is the detailed evaluation of risk for each substance (or substance group). The register points to the assessments; the assessments tell you what to do.

Make sure your team is trained to recognise hazardous substances and work safely under COSHH.

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Sources & references

Mark McShane
Mark McShane
Health & Safety Training Specialist, Online CPD Academy

Mark writes about workplace health & safety, COSHH and accredited online training for COSHH Training, part of Online CPD Academy.