Free COSHH Register Template (UK): PDF & Excel

COSHH compliance starts with knowing what hazardous substances you have. This register template gives you a one-line-per-substance inventory, and if you employ 5 or more people, the law requires your assessment findings to be written down.

⬇ Download PDF (print-ready)⬇ Download Excel (editable)

Free for use within your organisation. No sign-up required. If it saves you time, a link back to this page is always appreciated.

What's in the template

• Substance register: product, supplier, hazard class, where used and stored, SDS on file, assessment and review dates
• Assessment summary sheet: who's at risk and the key controls, one line per substance

How to use it

Walk the site and list everything with a hazard pictogram on the label. Cleaning chemicals count, and they're the most commonly missed. Ask suppliers for current safety data sheets, then record the assessment date and set a review date. Re-assess whenever you change product or process.

The 5-employee rule

Under 5 employees you must still do COSHH assessments. You just aren't required to write them down (though you'd struggle to prove them otherwise). Full explanation: COSHH assessment records: what UK employers must keep.

Who must keep this record

Every employer must assess the risks from substances hazardous to health under Regulation 6 of COSHH 2002. Employ five or more people and those assessments have to be written down, and the missing written record is itself a breach. Hazardous to health is wider than chemicals in drums: it covers fumes, dusts, vapours, mists, gases and biological agents, so process dust belongs on the register next to the bleach. If a label carries a hazard warning, the substance needs an assessment before use.

How long to keep it

The register is a live document rather than something with an expiry date: keep it current while the substances are on site, remove withdrawn products and date every review. The fixed retention periods sit on the records around it. Exposure monitoring records must be kept for at least five years, or 40 years where the substance can cause ill health after a long latency period, and health surveillance records for 40 years, held confidentially.

What a completed entry looks like

One line per substance, each linked to its safety data sheet and written assessment. A complete entry looks like this (field list in full: what is a COSHH register).

• Product and supplier: thick bleach 5L, supplier name, added to the register 06/02/2026
• Hazard classification: corrosive, taken from Section 2 of the safety data sheet, with the CLP pictograms shown on the label
• Where used and stored: washrooms and kitchen, locked chemical cupboard in store 2
• SDS on file: yes, version dated 11/2025 (suppliers are obliged to provide a current one, ask)
• Assessment and review: reference COSHH-018, completed 06/02/2026, review due 06/02/2027, trained users named

FAQs

Do cleaning products need a COSHH assessment?

Yes. Bleach, solvents, descalers and disinfectants commonly contain substances hazardous to health, and they are the entries most often missing from a register. If the label carries a hazard warning, it needs an assessment before use.

Who can carry out a COSHH assessment?

A competent person: someone with enough knowledge, training and experience to understand the risks from the substances involved and the right control measures. For straightforward substances with good safety data sheets, a trained line manager or health and safety officer can do it. Complex substances or unusual exposure routes may need specialist advice.

Can we keep the register on a computer?

Yes. Digital COSHH records are acceptable provided they are accessible to the people who need them, secure against unauthorised alteration, and can be produced in hard copy on request. Digital makes review dates easier to track, paper survives a power cut.

How often should assessments be reviewed?

Regularly, and whenever there is reason to believe an assessment is no longer valid: a change of substance, quantity or method of use, new information about health effects, a change in who is exposed, or an incident or near miss. Best practice is to review everything at least annually and date the review even when nothing changes. Identical text re-stamped year after year does not read as a review.

Sources

hse.gov.ukHSE: COSHHlegislation.gov.ukCOSHH Regulations 2002