The short answer
If your business uses substances that can harm health, and almost every business does, you legally need a COSHH assessment. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require employers to assess the risk from hazardous substances before work starts, and to prevent or adequately control exposure. "Hazardous substances" is broader than people think: ordinary cleaning chemicals, bleach, oven cleaner, dust, fumes and many others all count. A COSHH assessment is not a certificate you buy. It is a structured look at each substance, who is exposed and how, and the controls you put in place. You then keep it, act on it, and review it when things change.
What COSHH actually covers
COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. It is one of the most widely-applicable pieces of health and safety law, because almost every workplace uses something that can harm health.
“Hazardous substance” is far broader than chemicals in a lab. It includes the cleaning products in a cafe, the bleach and degreaser in a kitchen, hair products in a salon, fumes, dust, and more. If a product carries a hazard symbol, or a safety data sheet, it almost certainly falls under COSHH.
When you legally need an assessment
Regulation 6 of COSHH requires employers to assess the risk to health from hazardous substances before that work is carried out. You cannot assess after someone has been exposed. Regulation 7 then requires you to prevent exposure where you can, or adequately control it where you cannot.
In practice that means: if your staff use hazardous substances, you need a COSHH assessment for them, and you need it in place before the work starts.
What a COSHH assessment must cover
A proper assessment is a framework you complete for each substance or task. It records:
- the substance and its hazards (from the supplier’s safety data sheet),
- who is exposed and how (skin contact, breathing it in, splashes),
- the level of risk,
- the controls: substitution for something safer, ventilation, the right PPE, safe storage, and training,
- and a review date.
The reason you cannot buy a finished one is simple: it has to match your real substances, your real tasks and your real premises. A template’s job is to prompt you for the right information and keep the structure correct, so you complete it properly and sign it.
Keep it live
A COSHH assessment is not a one-off. You review it when you introduce a new product, change a process, or if there is reason to think it is no longer valid. Alongside the assessments, a simple substance register (what you hold, where, and whether you have the safety data sheet) makes an inspector’s first question easy to answer and keeps the whole system under control.
View the legal sources
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), in particular regulation 6 (assessment) and regulation 7 (prevention or control of exposure)
- Health and Safety Executive, COSHH guidance and the COSHH essentials tool
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2