The Duty Holder has a legal responsibility to retain records for a minimum of 5 years as specified below:
“Employers are required to maintain, examine and test control measures and, at suitable intervals review and, if necessary, revise those measures. They must also keep suitable records of examinations, tests and repairs of control measures”.
ACoP L8 pg 16 - COSHH, regulations 7 and 9; HSW Act, sections 2, 3 and 4.
When records must be kept (Pg7. HSG 274 Part 2) :
- Where there are five or more employees, the significant findings of the risk assessment must be recorded. If there less than five employees, there is no requirement to record anything although it is useful to keep a written record.
- Records must be retained for the period they remain current and for at least two years afterwards, with the exception of records kept for monitoring and inspection, which should be kept for at least five years. It may be helpful to keep training records of employees; records of the work of external service providers, such as water treatment specialists; and information on other hazards, e.g. chemical safety data sheets.
- Records, either written or electronic, should contain accurate information about who did the work and when it was carried out. All records should be signed, verified or authenticated by a signature or other appropriate means.
SMS Environmental can help with your record keeping using our own compliance software, Opuz.
