Last reviewed: October 2026
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Every employer in Great Britain whose work could expose employees to a substance hazardous to health must assess the risk first, under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. This free COSHH assessment checklist is for health and safety leads, site and workshop managers and supervisors who assess a workplace, area or task and then have to show the controls work. One run is one assessment. It plans the assessment, builds an inventory of the substances, including the dusts and fumes the work produces, and assesses who is exposed, by which route, how much and how often. It then prevents exposure where it can and adequately controls the rest, sets the maintenance, monitoring and health surveillance the regulations require, and covers training and emergencies before the findings are recorded, signed off and reviewed. A local exhaust ventilation phase appears when LEV is used, and tasks for carcinogens, mutagens and asthmagens and for health surveillance appear when they apply.
Regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) says an employer shall not carry out work that is liable to expose employees to a substance hazardous to health until they have made a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk to those employees, and of the steps needed to meet the regulations, and have put those steps in place. Substances hazardous to health include those that meet the criteria for a health hazard classification, anything with a workplace exposure limit, biological agents, and dust of any kind at or above set concentrations in air. The HSE adds that some are produced by the work itself, such as wood dust from sanding and fumes from welding.
A COSHH assessment is narrower and deeper than a general health and safety risk assessment. It goes substance by substance: who is exposed, by which route, how much and how often, whether exposure can be prevented, whether the controls are adequate, and what the regulations then require on maintenance, local exhaust ventilation, monitoring, health surveillance, training and emergencies. Fire and explosion risks from flammable substances belong in the fire risk assessment. Draining and isolating lines that hold hazardous substances before maintenance is part of a lockout procedure, and an ISO 45001 management system runs all of them as a yearly cycle.
Asks: which substances are present or produced, who is exposed and how, and is exposure prevented or adequately controlled?
When: before the work starts, reviewed regularly, and straight away after a significant change or when monitoring shows it is needed.
Output: the significant findings, the steps taken to prevent or control exposure, and the decisions on LEV, monitoring and health surveillance.
Asks: what else could cause harm here, from machinery and manual handling to work at height and stress?
When: for each workplace or activity, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Output: an action plan for all hazards, which points to the COSHH assessment for substances.
Asks: what could start a fire, what would burn, and would everyone get out?
When: reviewed regularly and after a significant change, by the responsible person for the premises.
Output: fire precautions and an emergency plan. COSHH does not apply where a substance is hazardous only because it is flammable.
Eight phases take one COSHH assessment from planning to review: prevention first, then adequate control, then the checks the regulations require. Phase 5 appears only when local exhaust ventilation is used, the tasks for carcinogens, mutagens and asthmagens and for health surveillance appear only when they apply, and Phase 8 shows the recording rule that fits the employer’s headcount.
Decide what the assessment covers and gather the information before you look at the work. Lead and asbestos have their own regulations and are not assessed here.
Regulation 6(2) lists what the assessment must consider, including the level, type and duration of exposure, the circumstances of the work and activities such as maintenance where exposure can be high.
Regulation 7 puts prevention first: exposure must be prevented or, where that is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled. Substitution is the preferred way to prevent it, and PPE comes last.
Shown only when Phase 1 records that LEV is used or planned. Regulation 9 requires a thorough examination and test of LEV at least once every 14 months, or at the shorter interval Schedule 4 sets for certain processes.
Controls stop working unless someone looks after them. The health surveillance tasks appear only when the answer to “Is health surveillance required?” is Yes.
Regulation 12 sets what employees must be told and trained in. Regulation 13 requires plans for accidents, incidents and emergencies involving the substances, unless the assessment shows only a slight risk because of the quantities present and the controls are sufficient.
With five or more employees, regulation 6(4) requires the significant findings, and the steps taken to meet regulation 7, to be recorded as soon as is practicable. Regulation 6(3) requires a review regularly and straight away when a trigger occurs.
Regulation 6 asks for an assessment of the steps needed to meet the regulations, so a COSHH assessment is only finished when it has an answer for each of regulations 7 to 13. The HSE’s own summary of the job is the same: gather information about the substances, the work and the working practices, evaluate the risks to health, decide on the measures needed to comply with regulations 7 to 13, record the assessment if you have five or more employees, and decide when it needs to be reviewed. Use the table to check nothing was left out.
| Regulation | What it requires | Where the checklist covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 6. Assessment | A suitable and sufficient assessment before the work starts, considering among other things the hazardous properties, the supplier’s safety data sheet, the level, type and duration of exposure, high-exposure activities such as maintenance, any WEL, and monitoring and health surveillance results. Reviewed regularly and straight away when a trigger occurs. With five or more employees, the significant findings and the steps taken to meet regulation 7 are recorded. | Phases 1 to 3 and 8 |
| 7. Prevention or control | Prevent exposure, by substitution by preference, or where that is not reasonably practicable control it adequately: work processes and engineering controls first, then control at source including ventilation, then suitable PPE where adequate control cannot be achieved by other means. | Phase 4 |
| 7(7) and Schedule 2A. Adequate control | Control is adequate only if the eight principles of good practice are applied, any WEL is not exceeded, and exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and asthmagens is reduced to as low a level as is reasonably practicable. | Phases 2 and 4 |
| 8. Use of controls | The employer takes all reasonable steps to make sure controls are used. Employees use them and report any defect straight away. | Phase 3 |
| 9. Maintenance, examination and testing | Plant and equipment kept in efficient working order and clean. LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least once every 14 months, or at the Schedule 4 interval. Non-disposable RPE examined at suitable intervals. Records kept for at least 5 years. | Phases 5 and 6 |
| 10. Monitoring exposure | Monitoring where the assessment shows it is needed, at regular intervals and after any change. Records of identifiable employees’ personal exposures kept for at least 40 years, others for at least 5. | Phase 6 |
| 11. Health surveillance | Suitable health surveillance where it is appropriate, with a health record for each employee kept for at least 40 years. Medical surveillance for the Schedule 6 substances and processes. | Phase 6 |
| 12. Information, instruction and training | The substances and their risks, any WEL, access to safety data sheets, the significant findings, the precautions to take, monitoring results and the collective results of health surveillance. Containers and pipes identifiable. | Phases 7 and 8 |
| 13. Accidents, incidents and emergencies | Procedures, first-aid facilities and safety drills tested at regular intervals, emergency information and warning systems, shared with the emergency services. Not required where the assessment shows only a slight risk because of the quantities present and the controls are sufficient. | Phase 7 |
What COSHH does not cover. Lead and asbestos have their own regulations. COSHH also does not apply where a substance is hazardous only because it is radioactive, explosive or flammable, or only because it is at a high or low temperature or a high pressure (regulation 5). A solvent that is both flammable and harmful to health is assessed here for its health effects.
Where it applies. The 2002 Regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, with the same five-employee recording rule and the same 14-month LEV examination interval. Workplace exposure limits for Great Britain are listed in the HSE’s EH40/2005, which COSHH makes legally binding.
A recurring schedule starts the review of each area’s COSHH assessment on the date you set, assigned to the assessor. The LEV phase records the date the next thorough examination and test is due, and a change in the work starts its own run from the same template the same day.
The manager is chosen on the first task. The sign-off is assigned to them alone, and nothing after the sign-off step can be completed until they record a decision and any conditions.
A print room with solvent wash and an office with cleaning products run the same checklist. The LEV phase appears only where extraction is used, and the carcinogen and health surveillance tasks appear only where the answers say they apply. The Reports Grid shows every assessment in progress and the tasks that are overdue.
CheckFlow does not decide whether exposure is adequately controlled. That judgement is yours, recorded in the tables on each task, with the data sheets, examination reports and fit test certificates attached where they were produced. It runs the assessment around it: who does what, by when, and who signed it off. CheckFlow’s compliance checklist software shows how the same approach handles recurring inspections and reviews.
Assess the other hazards in the same workplace with the Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist, and fire with the Fire Risk Assessment Checklist. Isolate and drain plant before maintenance with the Lockout/Tagout Checklist, and run the management system around all of them with the ISO 45001 Checklist.
Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist
Fire Risk Assessment Checklist
Safety Audit Checklist
Safety Inspection Process for a Manufacturing Facility
ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
It is the risk assessment that regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 requires before any work that is liable to expose employees to a substance hazardous to health. It identifies the substances, including dusts and fumes the work produces, decides who could be harmed and how, and sets out the steps needed to prevent or adequately control exposure. The HSE says the person doing it needs no particular qualification but must be competent: they must understand hazard and risk, know how the work exposes people, and be able to collect the information and decide on the controls.
If you employ five or more people, yes. Regulation 6(4) requires you to record the significant findings as soon as is practicable after the assessment is made, and the steps you have taken to prevent or control exposure under regulation 7. The HSE says that even with fewer than five employees it makes sense to write down what you did. There is no set form: the HSE asks that the record covers the dangers, to whom and doing what task, the controls that could prevent harm, and how they are used and checked.
Regulation 6(3) requires a review regularly, and straight away if there is reason to suspect the assessment is no longer valid, the work has changed significantly, or monitoring results show a review is needed. It sets no fixed interval: the HSE says that depends on the risk, the work and how likely things are to change. A review does not mean repeating the whole assessment. The first question is whether it is still suitable and sufficient, and only the parts that no longer reflect the work need changing.
Regulation 7(7) sets three tests. The eight principles of good practice in Schedule 2A must be applied, any workplace exposure limit for the substance must not be exceeded, and for carcinogens, mutagens and asthmagens exposure must be reduced to as low a level as is reasonably practicable. Control comes after prevention: regulation 7 says to prevent exposure where reasonably practicable, preferably by substitution, and lists the order of controls after that, with PPE last, provided only where adequate control cannot be achieved by other means.
At least once every 14 months under regulation 9(2), or more often for the four processes in Schedule 4: every month for blasting to clean metal castings and for jute cloth manufacture, and every six months for certain dry grinding and polishing of metal and for processes that produce non-ferrous metal castings. Keep a record of each examination, test and resulting repair for at least 5 years. The HSE says the examiner must be competent and needs the system’s intended performance, usually from the commissioning report.
Regulation 11 requires it where it is appropriate to protect employees’ health. That is the case where an identifiable disease or adverse health effect may be related to the exposure, is reasonably likely under the conditions of the work, and can be detected by valid techniques that are low risk to the employee. It is also required for the substances and processes in Schedule 6, with medical surveillance under a relevant doctor at least every 12 months. Keep a health record for each employee under surveillance for at least 40 years.
No. The HSE says a safety data sheet is not a risk assessment, and that collecting data sheets is only the first stage. The sheet describes the hazards of the product and how to handle, store and deal with it in an emergency, but it is not specific to your workplace. The assessment has to look at how the substance is actually used, who is exposed and how much. Substances produced by the work, such as wood dust, have no data sheet at all and still need assessing.
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