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Last updated: 18 December 2024
What are you COSHH responsibilities as a tradesperson?
If you work with hazardous substances in your skilled trade, you need to know what are your COSHH responsibilities. Having a risk assessment template is a good place to start, and we look at what your business needs to know.
What is the meaning of COSHH?
Tradespeople who work with hazardous substances must understand the meaning of COSHH. Know what counts as a hazardous substance can help define what are your COSHH responsibilities.
COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health.
Knowing about your responsibilities as a tradesperson can help you to avoid harm or ill health.
What are the main health risks from hazardous substances?
Exposure to hazardous substances can cause many types of illness. These can include:
Skin damage
Lung disease
Asthma
Cancer
Dizziness
Eye damage
As these conditions vary in severity, knowing how to handle potentially hazardous substances is essential.
Following the legal requirements are part of your responsibilities as a tradesperson. Compliance means you should be aware of best practices in all areas of health and safety, including the rules around COSHH.
You take workplace safety seriously
We’re serious about finding more sales for you
COSHH safety warning symbols
You’re probably already familiar with hazardous substance warning symbols. They are the warning symbols you see on containers and vehicles used for transporting materials.
They include substances that are:
Corrosive
Toxic
Hazardous to the environment
A health hazard
Other symbols cover substances that are flammable, oxidising, explosive or are meant to reflect gas under pressure.
Although your trade business may not use products with all of these, it is important to know what they mean, especially if you have to provide first aid at work.
Are there penalties if you breach COSHH regulations?
The HSE can impose fines, imprisonment and disqualification if your trade business breaches its health and safety regulations.
There are different levels of fines for different breaches of the regulations based on severity.
Not sure who the HSE are? The Health and Safety Executive are a government body that helps promote safe working environments.
What is the role of the HSE?
The role of the HSE in workplace health and safety Whether you’re an apprentice or an experienced worker, you probably know more than your fair share about health and safety. After all, it’s an integral part of any business. Not only does it protect and save lives, but it ensures that future
What are the three main regulations of COSHH?
The government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is in charge of COSHH regulations.
It recommends three main regulations of COSHH for trade businesses to consider when managing COSHH.
Understand how people may come into contact with hazardous substances: breathing it, ingesting it, absorbing it through the skin
Identify potential hazards: people’s health, physical dangers (like fire and explosions), and environmental risks
Manage risks properly
Getting the right control procedures in place can help protect your trade business and limit the chance of potential accidents.
What are hazardous substances for tradespeople?
Hazards can be from a range of sources including solids, gases and liquids. These can be fumes and vapours that are hard to notice when breathed in.
It helps if you have a good overall understanding of workplace health and safety risks. Especially in your own trade sector.
For example, there will be different hazards for plumbers than there will be on a construction site.
It is good to get familiar with the UK regulations around safe working practices:
What are safe working practices in the UK?
The importance of health and safety in the workplace If you run your own trade business, we’re sure you’re already intimately aware of the need for health and safety. A legal duty for employers under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, you need to keep your employees safe. And that means
Types of hazards
In trade business, hazardous substances typically include:
Chemicals
Products containing chemicals
Fumes, vapours, and mists
Dust
Gases
Germs and microorganisms
COSHH regulations do NOT cover certain substances. The risks are so great that they have separate regulations:
Lead
Asbestos
Radioactive materials
For example, if you're thinking of starting an asbestos removal company, there will be a different range of rules you'll need to know. Standard COSHH regulations cover businesses of all types.
Get familiar with the rules and regulations
Check out our other health and safety guides for tradespeople
Different hazardous substances for trade businesses
Every trade is different when it comes to using hazardous substances. Here are some typical examples:
Building, construction, roofing (Dust, chemicals, cement)
Carpentry and joinery (Dusts, adhesives, strippers, disinfectants, glues, adhesives)
Cleaning (Corrosive materials, bleach, cleaning agents)
Gardening and landscaping (Dust, chemicals and toxic gases, pesticides, fertilisers)
Heating and gas work (Gases, dust, corrosive materials)
Painting, decorating and tiling (Paints, cleaning fluids)
Plastering and rendering (Chemicals, paints, cleaning fluids)
Plumbing (Corrosive materials, chemicals, cleaning fluids, dust)
As an experienced tradesperson, you will no doubt have encountered some or all of these substances.
It is why having the correct PPE and COSHH procedures in place is absolutely crucial. Regardless of whether your trade business is small, medium, larger, or you're working as a sole trader.
You take workplace safety seriously
We’re serious about finding more sales for you
What are your COSHH responsibilities?
Knowing about safe working practices for trade businesses generally is essential. When it comes to handling hazardous substances, HSE recommends that you:
Assess the risk
Prevent problems
Inform staff and make sure you provide proper training and protection
Employers’ responsibilities
Limit the use of hazardous substances within the HSE’s workplace exposure limits
Don’t exposure staff to risks from hazardous substances
Control how hazardous substances are handled
Set up a process for using hazardous substances
Train staff on handling and using hazardous substances
Supervise staff on using hazardous substances
Keep a check when hazardous substances are in use
Carry out COSHH risk assessments (see below)
Employees’ responsibilities
Work safely with hazardous substances
Make sure your colleagues are kept safe
Follow your employer’s process for using hazardous substances
Report incidents and accidents
Keep up to date on training for using hazardous substances
Clean yourself and your equipment after using hazardous substances
What is an example of a COSHH register?
Generally speaking, following health and safety guidelines like COSHH helps you operate more effectively. And that should ensure a successful and profitable trade business.
Your COSHH register should record all the hazardous substances your trade business uses.
The benefits of using a register or template include being able to:
Meet regulations and avoid possible legal actions against your trade business.
Identify the potential health hazards
Assess the risks
Work out how to prevent harm to health
Provide measures to control hazardous substances
Set clear instructions and training for staff
Check that safety measures are being followed
You take workplace safety seriously
We’re serious about finding more sales for you
Risk assessment template for COSHH
Creating a risk assessment template for COSHH for your trade business is straightforward. Set one up in Word or Excel or as a PDF file.
Think about your trade and what hazardous substances this might include. Here are some of the questions to ask in your risk assessment template for COSHH:
General info
Name of substance
Where it was bought
Quantity bought
Date it was bought
Date it expires
Responsibilities
Date its risks were assessed
Name of the person who carried out the risk assessment
Name of the person responsible for regularly checking and maintaining safety standards
Where the substance is stored
Risks
List of potential hazards the substance can cause
How often people are exposed to the risk
What it is to be used for
Who is allowed to use it
Monitoring
How the use of the hazardous substance is monitored
How risks are controlled (for example, PPE, training)
What action to take if hazardous substances cause health or safety problems
What emergency plans are in place, for example, a spillage of hazardous substances
Work safely and take your business to the next level
Knowing what your COSHH responsibilities are is important to stay in line with workplace regulations. It can gives your trade business a competitive advantage. For example, having a risk assessment template for COSHH shows customers and suppliers you take safety seriously.
By building up your reputation with strong safety principles you can therefore win new business.
At Checkatrade, we only take on the best trades, who have passed our vetting checks. Think you've got what it takes? There's a number of other reasons to consider coming on board:
Share of existing customer interest and job leads
Dedicated membership advice team
Work guarantee up to £1,000
Exclusive offers and discounts
Reduced cost of workwear and branding
Savings on other business essentials such as vans, fuel and materials
What do you need to become Checkatrade approved?
Becoming a Checkatrade member comes with a whole host of benefits, but the biggest has to be gaining our seal of approval. Homeowners tend to expect a commitment to quality when it comes to the Checkatrade tick, which can help you to win more business. Here are the checks you'll need to pass to join our directory.
Key takeaways
The meaning of COSHH is the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations
COSHH seeks to keep company employees and their customers safe
A risk assessment template for COSHH helps you act professionally, protecting you, your staff and your customers
Knowing what are your COSHH responsibilities will help you to reduce the risks of accidents or incidents involving hazardous substances
COSHH registers provide details of the hazardous substances you use, how you use and store them safely and how you make sure staff know how to use them properly
You could face fines, imprisonment and disqualification if your trade business breaches health and safety regulations
Get familiar with the rules and regulations
Check out our other health and safety guides for tradespeople
