Skip to content

A blank COSHH assessment.Free, no sign-up, one page per substance.

Print it and fill it in on site, or type into it at a desk. It carries the five things an assessment has to say, in the order an inspector reads them. What it cannot do is know your substance — that part is below.
DOWNLOAD THE BLANK (PDF)SEE ONE FILLED IN
Page one of the blank template: the substance and its sheet, the job, and how people could be exposed with a line for what covers each route.
Page one of two. Sections for the sheet, the job, each exposure route and what covers it, then sign-off. No email address, no account — it is a file.

Filling it in

What belongs in every box.

Most rejected assessments fail on the same three things: the sheet is old, the task is described as the product rather than the job, and nothing says what actually deals with each exposure route.

  1. 01

    The substance, and the sheet it came from

    Product name, supplier, the hazard statements on the label, and which revision of the safety data sheet you read. A sheet from 2016 is not evidence about the tin on site today.

  2. 02

    The job, not the product

    The same solvent used two ways needs two assessments. Say what the task is, who does it, how much, how often, and where — indoors changes the answer.

  3. 03

    How people could be exposed

    Breathing it in, skin, eyes, swallowing. Only the routes that apply to this job, and each one has to be dealt with by something.

  4. 04

    The controls, best first

    Stop using it, swap it, engineer it out, change the way of working — protective equipment last, because it only works when it is worn correctly every time.

  5. 05

    What to do when it goes wrong, and who signed it

    First aid, spills, fire. Then the name of the person accountable, the date, and when it gets looked at again.

Being straight about it

A blank is fine for one substance.

It stops being fine at twenty. Every tin needs its own assessment per task, every new revision of a safety data sheet puts the old one out of date, and the copy you printed in March is not the copy anyone is holding in November.

  • Hand-filled sheets carry no version. Nobody can tell which one is current, and the person on site is holding whichever copy reached them.
  • The hazard data gets retyped from the sheet, which is where the mistakes come from.
  • When the supplier reissues the sheet, nothing tells you which of your assessments are now out of date.
SEE WHAT THE TOOL PRODUCES INSTEAD

The way through

Start from the sheet the supplier already gave you.

That blank has to be filled in by hand, once per substance, once per task, and again every time the supplier reissues the sheet. The same five boxes can be filled from the sheet itself.

  1. 01

    Upload the supplier safety data sheet.

  2. 02

    Check the facts it read, and correct anything wrong.

  3. 03

    Say what the job is and who is exposed.

  4. 04

    Choose the controls, and confirm what covers each route.

  5. 05

    Issue it. Send the link.

START FROM THE SAFETY DATA SHEET

Elsewhere in COSHH