Free COSHH form, no email needed
COSHH Assessment Template
Word & PDF
A blank COSHH assessment form for UK workplaces: substances and their hazards, workplace exposure limits, routes of exposure, control measures, RPE and PPE, health surveillance and sign-off. Free to download in Word or PDF.
The short answer
What is a COSHH assessment template?
A COSHH assessment template is a form for recording the assessment that regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 requires: each hazardous substance, how people could be exposed, the workplace exposure limit, the controls, the RPE and PPE, and any health surveillance. swiftRMS offers a free COSHH assessment template in Word and PDF, and can also draft a filled-in COSHH assessment for a specific task in about 2 minutes, for a competent person to check and approve.
For how to carry out the assessment step by step, read our COSHH risk assessment guide. For the duties behind it, see the COSHH Regulations guide.
Eight parts
What the COSHH template covers
The same structure an inspector or principal contractor expects to see, with space for every substance the task uses or creates. Take exposure limits from HSE's EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits.
Substances and their hazards
Each product or substance used or created by the task, including dusts and fumes the work produces, such as silica from cutting concrete or fume from welding. Hazard classifications come from the supplier's safety data sheet.
Workplace exposure limits
The limit for each substance from HSE's EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits, where one is set, so you can judge whether exposure is controlled.
Routes of exposure
How the substance could get into the body: breathing it in, skin or eye contact, swallowing it, or through cuts. The route decides which controls work.
Who could be harmed
The operatives doing the task, others working nearby, and members of the public or building occupants, with how often and for how long they are exposed.
Control measures
Following the hierarchy: stop using the substance, swap it for something safer, enclose the process, extract at source, change how the job is done, then PPE last.
RPE and PPE
The respiratory protective equipment needed, its protection factor, and face-fit testing for tight-fitting masks, plus gloves, eye protection and overalls.
Health surveillance
Whether workers need health surveillance, such as lung function checks for regular silica exposure or skin checks for dermatitis, and who carries it out.
Storage, spills, emergencies and sign-off
How the substance is stored and disposed of, what to do after a spill or exposure, and the assessor's and approver's signatures with a briefing record.
COSHH assessment example
Worked example: silica dust from cutting concrete
How one row of the template reads once it is filled in. It is an illustration, not an assessment of your job: your products, method and site change the answers. The full picture is in our silica dust COSHH assessment post.
- Task
- Cutting concrete kerbs and blocks with a petrol disc cutter on a highways job.
- Substance
- Respirable crystalline silica (RCS), produced as fine dust by cutting.
- Exposure route
- Breathing in fine dust. Long-term exposure can cause silicosis, lung cancer and COPD.
- Exposure limit
- 0.1 mg/m³ over an 8-hour average (HSE, EH40/2005).
- Who is at risk
- The cutter operator, the labourer feeding kerbs, and anyone working downwind.
- Controls
- Order kerbs cut to size where possible. Use water suppression on the saw, set to the manufacturer's flow rate. Cut in the open, away from others, with the operator upwind.
- RPE and PPE
- FFP3 disposable mask or equivalent, face-fit tested, clean-shaven where it seals; hearing protection, eye protection, gloves.
- Health surveillance
- Likely to be needed for workers who cut regularly: agree it with an occupational health provider.
- Review
- When the method, the cutter or the materials change, or if health checks show a problem.
More COSHH assessment examples: welding fumes, wood dust, cement, paints and solvents and adhesives and resins.
Tools and options
Ways to write a COSHH assessment
A template is one option. Here is how it compares with the others, honestly.
HSE's free guidance
HSE does not require a particular form, but its COSHH pages explain the assessment, and its COSHH Essentials sheets give free control advice for common tasks such as cutting, welding and spraying. Use them alongside any template.
A blank template (this page)
Free, editable and yours to keep. It suits a business with a short list of substances and someone who knows how to read a safety data sheet. You fill in every substance, limit and control yourself.
Paid document packs
Several UK sellers offer COSHH form packs and pre-written assessments for common products. They save typing, but each one still has to be checked against your own products and how you use them.
COSHH software
Specialist systems such as EcoOnline's Sypol and Sevron's Safety365 hold a library of safety data sheets and manage large chemical inventories across sites. swiftRMS drafts the COSHH assessment for a task alongside the RAMS for the same job, from £49 a month after a 14-day free trial. Our comparison of COSHH assessment software sets them side by side.
Whichever you use, the assessment is only suitable and sufficient once a competent person has checked it against your products and how they are used. See how COSHH assessments work in swiftRMS.
FAQ
COSHH template FAQs
Is there a free COSHH assessment template?
Yes. The COSHH assessment template on this page is free to download in Word and PDF with no email address or signup. It covers the substances, hazard classifications, exposure routes, workplace exposure limits, people at risk, control measures, RPE and PPE, health surveillance, storage and disposal, emergency arrangements, a briefing record and sign-off.
What should a COSHH assessment form include?
Each hazardous substance and its hazards from the safety data sheet, how people could be exposed, the workplace exposure limit from HSE's EH40/2005 where one is set, who could be harmed, the controls in hierarchy order, the RPE and PPE needed, whether health surveillance is required, storage, spill and emergency arrangements, and who carried out and approved the assessment.
Is a COSHH assessment a legal requirement?
Yes. Regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 requires employers to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk from work that is liable to expose employees to hazardous substances, before the work starts. If you employ five or more people you must record the significant findings.
What is the difference between a COSHH assessment and a safety data sheet?
A safety data sheet is written by the supplier and describes the product: its hazards, safe handling and first aid. A COSHH assessment is written by the employer and describes your task: how the product is used on your job, who could be exposed, and the controls you will put in place. The data sheet is an input to the assessment, not a replacement for it.
How often should a COSHH assessment be reviewed?
Regularly, and straight away if there is reason to think it is no longer valid, if the work changes significantly, or if monitoring or health surveillance results show it needs to change. Many employers also set a fixed review date, for example once a year.
Can swiftRMS fill in a COSHH assessment for me?
swiftRMS drafts a COSHH assessment from a plain-English description of the task in about 2 minutes, with the substances, exposure routes, controls and exposure limits filled in. A competent person then checks it against the product safety data sheets and approves it. You can generate a RAMS for the same job without signing up, and COSHH assessments are included in the 14-day free trial.
Related: risk assessment template, RAMS template and permit to work templates.