What is COSHH and Who Does it Apply To in the UK?

This guide explains what COSHH is, who it applies to, and what compliance looks like in practice. It also highlights an important point that is often overlooked: effective COSHH management depends on having accurate and up-to-date information about the hazardous substances used in your workplace. That information comes from the Safety Data Sheet (SDS), which plays a central role in helping businesses assess risks and implement the right control measures.

What is COSHH?

COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. It is a set of regulations that have been in place in the UK since 1988, with the current version dating from 2002. The core idea is simple: if substances in your workplace can harm people, you need to know about it, assess the risk, and do something about it. The regulations cover a wide range of substances that people might not immediately think of as hazardous:

• Chemicals such as solvents, cleaning products, paints, adhesives and fuels
• Dusts including flour, wood, silica and metal particles
• Fumes and vapours from welding, exhausts and chemical processes
• Biological agents like bacteria, moulds and viruses that can cause illness
• Newer materials such as nanoparticles used in modern manufacturing

If a substance can damage someone's health through breathing it in, skin contact, ingestion or injection, COSHH is likely to apply.

What Does COSHH Actually Require?

The HSE sets out a clear list of responsibilities under COSHH. Employers must:

• Carry out a COSHH risk assessment for every hazardous substance in use
• Put control measures in place, which might mean ventilation, safe handling procedures or PPE
• Make sure workers have the training and information they need
• Monitor exposure where necessary and keep health records

That last point about information is where things often fall down in practice. You cannot assess the risks from a substance properly if you do not know what it actually contains, what it can do, and how to handle an incident involving it. That information comes from the Safety Data Sheet.

COSHH and the Safety Data Sheet

Under COSHH, employers are required to have access to a current Safety Data Sheet for every hazardous substance they use. The SDS is the document that tells you what classification a substance carries, what the exposure limits are, how to respond in an emergency, and what controls are appropriate. In other words, the SDS is not just a compliance document to file away. It is the foundation that a COSHH risk assessment is built on. Two practical requirements follow from this. You need to get an SDS from the manufacturer or supplier before you start using a new substance. And you need to make sure it stays current, because manufacturers revise SDS documents regularly as new hazard data comes in. An SDS that was accurate three years ago may no longer reflect how a substance is classified today. ISDSS provides free access to over 1.5 million Safety Data Sheets, searchable by product name or manufacturer. You can build a personal library of the substances your workplace uses and download the matching SDS for each product. This is one of the most common gaps we see. Workplaces have SDS documents, but they are outdated, stored somewhere nobody can find them, or not matched to the actual products on site. Getting this right is not complicated, but it does require a system.

Who Does COSHH Apply To?

COSHH is broad in scope. It applies across virtually every sector where people work with or around substances that could harm their health.

Employers

Employers carry the main legal responsibility. That means identifying every hazardous substance on site, completing COSHH assessments, putting controls in place, training staff, and keeping SDS documents current and accessible. Getting this wrong is a criminal matter, not just an admin issue.

Employees

Employees are responsible for following safe working procedures, using protective equipment properly, and raising concerns when something does not seem right. Understanding how to read a Safety Data Sheet is part of being able to do that well.

Self-employed workers

If you work for yourself and your work involves hazardous substances, COSHH still applies. The standard is the same whether you are an employer with fifty staff or a sole trader working on your own.

Which Industries are Most Affected?

COSHH affects virtually every sector, but some feel it more than others:

• Manufacturing, including chemicals, plastics and metal finishing
• Construction, where cement dust, silica and solvents are routine hazards
• Healthcare, with exposure to disinfectants, clinical waste and biological agents
• Food preparation, where flour dust and cleaning chemicals both present risks
• Cleaning services, working with bleach, detergents and chemical sprays regularly

What COSHH Does Not Cover

A few categories of hazardous substance fall under separate legislation rather than COSHH. These include:

• Asbestos, which is covered by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
• Lead, covered by the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002
• Radioactive substances, covered by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017
• Flammable and explosive risks, covered by DSEAR

Even where separate regulations apply, you will still need a Safety Data Sheet for those substances. The SDS is the primary source of hazard information regardless of which regulatory framework governs the specific risk.

Why This Actually Matters

The Health and Safety Executive estimates that around 11,000 deaths in Great Britain each year are linked to past exposure to hazardous substances at work, the majority from occupational lung disease caused by dust, chemicals and asbestos. These are not accidents in the traditional sense. They are the result of years of uncontrolled or poorly managed exposure. For employers, the consequences of getting COSHH wrong go beyond the obvious. There is the legal side: breaching COSHH is a criminal offence that can result in unlimited fines. There is the human side: workers developing conditions that affect them for the rest of their lives. And there is the practical side: businesses that take health and safety seriously tend to have better retention, fewer sick days and stronger operational standards overall. Most of the time, doing COSHH properly is not complicated. It is a matter of knowing what is on site, having the right information to hand, and making sure the people doing the work understand what they are dealing with.