COSHH for cleaning companies: assessments, register and template

COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. For a cleaning company it comes down to one question: do you know what's in the products your cleaners use, what harm they can do, and what you've done about it?

It sounds like paperwork for factories. It isn't. Bleach, oven cleaner, limescale remover and most toilet cleaners are hazardous substances, and cleaners use them every day, often in small bathrooms with the window shut. Commercial clients, letting agents and tenders now ask for your COSHH records as a matter of course.

Which products count

A product is covered if its label carries a hazard pictogram: the red-bordered diamonds. Supermarket products count as soon as they're used for work. So do products a customer leaves out for your cleaner to use.

Products with no pictogram, like most washing-up liquids, still need common sense, but they don't need a full assessment.

Get the safety data sheets

Every hazardous product has a safety data sheet (SDS) from its manufacturer or supplier. It tells you what's in it, how it can hurt someone, what to do if it's swallowed or splashed, and how to store it. Your supplier must give you one if you ask, and most manufacturers publish them online.

Get the SDS for every product on your list and keep them where you and your team can find them. Not in a box in the office: on the phone, or in the van.

Assess each product

A COSHH assessment is a risk assessment for one product, or a group of similar ones. For each, write down:

1. 1What it is and where it's used. Product name, what it's for, which jobs or properties use it.
2. 2How it can cause harm. Skin contact, splashes to eyes, breathing in spray or fumes, swallowing. The SDS tells you.
3. 3Who could be harmed. Your cleaners, but also the client's staff, guests, children or pets who come in after.
4. 4How much and how often. A squirt of spray once a week is not the same as an oven clean every day.
5. 5The controls. What you do to keep the risk down (see below).
6. 6What to do if it goes wrong. First aid, spills, and who to call.

If you have five or more employees, the law expects you to write down the significant findings. If you have fewer, write them down anyway. It's the only way to show a client you've done it.

Controls that work

Work down this list, starting at the top. The best control is not having the hazard at all.

• Use something less harmful. A milder product often does the job. Many companies cut their corrosive products to one or two, kept for the jobs that need them.
• Use less of it. Dilution systems, measured doses and trigger sprays set to stream rather than mist all reduce what gets on skin and into the air.
• Ventilate. Open windows, run the extractor fan, and don't spray inside a closed shower cubicle.
• Store and carry it properly. Original containers, lids on, upright, away from food and out of reach of children at the property. Never decant into drinks bottles.
• Protective equipment. Gloves suited to the product (the SDS says which), and eye protection for anything corrosive or sprayed at head height. Provide it free, and replace it.

Skin: the one cleaners get

The most common COSHH problem in cleaning isn't a dramatic splash. It's dermatitis: dry, cracked, sore hands from years of wet work and cleaning products. It's largely preventable.

• Gloves for wet work, with cotton liners if hands sweat.
• Wash and dry hands properly, and moisturise at the end of the day.
• Ask your team to tell you early about any itching, redness or cracking. A quick regular look at hands is a sensible habit for anyone doing a lot of wet work.

Keep a COSHH register

The register is the list that ties it all together. One row per product, for example:

Keep the SDS for each product with its row, and the date it was assessed and is next due for review.

Train your team

An assessment nobody has read doesn't protect anyone. Every cleaner should know:

• Which products they'll use, and what the pictograms mean.
• What PPE to wear for each, and where to get more.
• That they must never mix products, and why.
• What to do if someone is splashed or breathes in fumes.
• To use only the products you've given them, and to ask you before using a client's.

Ask each person to sign that they've been trained, and keep the record. Do it again when a product changes or someone new joins. Our guide to staff training and policies covers how to get a mobile team to read and sign.

Review it

Look at your assessments at least once a year, and straight away when you change a product, take on a new kind of work, or someone has a reaction or an accident.

When a client asks for it

Commercial clients and agents usually ask for three things: your COSHH register, the safety data sheets for products used on their site, and proof your staff are trained. Often they want a risk assessment and method statement for the job as well. If those are ready to send, you look like the company that should win the contract.

How RoomZoom helps

RoomZoom's COSHH register walks you through each product: its hazard symbols, what it's used for, the controls and PPE, and first aid, with suggested answers for common cleaning products that you check against the product's own SDS. Upload the SDS against each product, and download the register as a PDF or share it with a client. When you change a product, the register becomes a new revision, so you can show what it said and when.

The COSHH register is on every plan, including the free one for up to 5 properties. On Pro, your COSHH training goes to each cleaner to read and sign on their phone, and the training matrix shows who has signed. Sign up free, with no card needed.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. The HSE website has the official guidance on COSHH.