COSHH training is legally required, but the law sets no course, no certificate and no expiry date. Regulation 12 requires employers to give anyone who may be exposed to a hazardous substance “suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training” — and leaves the form entirely to you.
That freedom is why so many businesses get it wrong in the same way: they buy a generic online course, file the certificates, and never do the site-specific half — which is the half the law actually cares about most.
What Regulation 12 says
Regulation 12 of COSHH 2002 requires employers to provide employees who may be exposed with suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training, covering:
- The risks to health created by the substances they are exposed to
- The precautions they should take — the controls, how to use them, and why
- The results of any exposure monitoring, and immediate notification if a workplace exposure limit is exceeded
- The collective results of health surveillance, in a form that does not identify individuals
Two details are easy to miss. First, the duty covers information and instruction as well as training — telling people the monitoring results is itself a legal obligation, not a courtesy. Second, the training must be updated as the risks change.
Regulation 12 also requires that anyone carrying out work with a substance be given the information they need, and that it is adapted to the audience — accounting for literacy, first language, and experience. Handing a non-English speaker a printed English document does not discharge the duty.
Who needs COSHH training?
Anyone who may be exposed — which is far wider than the people who handle chemicals directly.
- Anyone using cleaning products, solvents, adhesives, paints or fuels
- Anyone generating dust — cutting, drilling, grinding, sanding, sweeping
- Anyone working near a process that releases fume, mist or vapour, even if they are not operating it
- Cleaners, caretakers and maintenance staff
- Care and healthcare workers handling disinfectants or biological agents
- Hair and beauty staff working with dyes, bleaches and acrylics
- Supervisors and managers, who need enough to supervise properly
- Anyone writing COSHH assessments — they need more than awareness
Even a small office is in scope. Cleaning chemicals are substances hazardous to health, and the person using them is entitled to know what is in the bottle.
Is there a legal minimum, or an expiry date?
No, to both. COSHH names no duration, no syllabus, no awarding body and no renewal period. Anyone telling you that “COSHH training must be renewed every three years by law” is describing a convention, not a regulation.
What the law requires is that the training remains suitable and sufficient. In practice that means refreshing it when:
- A new substance or process is introduced
- An assessment is revised, or controls change
- Monitoring or health surveillance reveals a problem
- An incident, near miss or spill occurs
- Someone changes role
- Observation shows people are not following the controls
Three years is the widely used interval for refresher training, and most auditors and insurers expect to see something in that range. Treat it as good practice rather than a deadline — and refresh sooner when any of the triggers above apply.
The two halves — and why one course is never enough
This is the distinction that decides whether your training actually satisfies Regulation 12.
| General training | Site-specific instruction |
|---|---|
| What COSHH is and why it exists | Which substances are used here |
| How substances enter the body | Where the assessments are kept and what they say |
| Hazard pictograms and labelling | How your extraction, gloves and RPE are used |
| The hierarchy of control | Your spill and emergency procedures |
| What an assessment involves | Your monitoring and health surveillance results |
| An online course can deliver this | Only the employer can deliver this |
A CPD-accredited course covers the left column well and gives you a dated record. It cannot tell someone which cupboard the assessments live in or how your particular LEV hood should be positioned. Buying the course and skipping the right-hand column leaves the duty unmet, however many certificates are in the folder.
Does an online course satisfy the law?
It can form part of it. There is no requirement for classroom attendance, and online training is routinely accepted as evidence of the general element.
Be clear about what it is, though. A CPD-accredited course is independently reviewed continuing professional development. It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification. For general food-handler-style awareness that distinction rarely matters; if a client, scheme or contract has specified a regulated qualification, check before buying.
Where someone is writing COSHH assessments rather than following them, awareness-level training is not enough — that role needs deeper competence, and often external support.
Recording it
COSHH does not prescribe a format, but you cannot demonstrate compliance without records. Keep:
- Who was trained, and on what date
- What the training covered — topic list, not just a title
- Who delivered it, and their competence
- Certificates for any external course
- Evidence of the site-specific element — toolbox talks, induction sign-offs, refreshers
- Some check that it was understood, not merely attended
Training records are among the first things an inspector asks for, and they feed directly into whether your control measures look real or theoretical.
How to tell whether it worked
Certificates prove attendance. They do not prove understanding. The honest test is what you see on the floor:
- Is the extraction switched on, and positioned correctly?
- Are lids on containers between uses?
- Are the right gloves being worn — and are they the right material for the substance?
- Is anyone dry sweeping?
- Can someone tell you, unprompted, what the substance they are using can do to them?
- Do people know where the assessments are?
If the answer to the last two is no, the training has not landed, whatever the folder says.
Further reading
The general half, done properly
Our COSHH Awareness course covers substances hazardous to health, exposure routes, hazard pictograms, the hierarchy of control and what an assessment involves — with a dated, verifiable certificate for your records. Pair it with your own site-specific instruction.
Related: Silica Dust Awareness · RPE
Related reading: COSHH employer duties · How to do a COSHH risk assessment · COSHH questions and answers
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100 % online, verifiable e-certificate on completion. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.
Please note: this is a CPD-accredited awareness course and general information, not legal advice. It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification and does not replace the site-specific information, instruction and supervision employers must provide under Regulation 12. Always check your employer’s and scheme’s specific requirements.