COSHH guide

Safety data sheets (SDS) and COSHH

What each of the 16 sections of a safety data sheet tells you, who must supply one and when, and which parts feed your COSHH assessment.

Free COSHH assessment template →

Published 5 October 2026 · Checked against legislation.gov.uk and HSE on 5 October 2026

A person writing with a pen on a stack of printed sheets at a desk, in black and white

What is a safety data sheet?

A safety data sheet (SDS) is the document a supplier must give you with a hazardous chemical, setting out its hazards and how to handle, store and dispose of it. In Great Britain the duty sits in Article 31 of UK REACH, and Annex II fixes the same 16 headings, in the same order, for every sheet.

MSDS, short for material safety data sheet, is the older name, and some sheets still carry it. "COSHH data sheet" and "COSHH sheet" are the everyday trade names for the same document. The legal name in Great Britain is safety data sheet.

HSE puts it plainly: a safety data sheet is not a risk assessment. It describes the product. Your COSHH assessment describes your work with it, and regulation 6 of COSHH requires the assessment to consider the information on the sheet.

Looking for the sheet for a particular product? For a hazardous product, the supplier must provide it free of charge, on paper or electronically. Ask the merchant or manufacturer that sold it to you, or download it from their website.

The 16 sections of a safety data sheet

UK REACH Annex II

Every safety data sheet supplied in Great Britain uses these headings, worded as Annex II Part B words them. Each row says what the section holds and what you carry from it into the COSHH assessment.

The sixteen headings of a safety data sheet under UK REACH Annex II, what each holds, and its use in a COSHH assessment
Section heading	What it tells you	What goes into the COSHH assessment
Section 1: Identification of the substance/mixture and of the company/undertaking	The product name, its intended uses and any uses the supplier advises against. The supplier’s address, telephone, email for a competent person and an emergency telephone number.	The exact product name and supplier for the register. Check that your use is not one the supplier advises against.
Section 2: Hazards identification	The classification, and the label elements: pictograms, signal word, hazard statements and precautionary statements. Also other hazards, such as dust or air contaminants given off while a product hardens.	The hazards the assessment starts from. Read the hazard statements, not only the pictograms. See COSHH symbols.
Section 3: Composition/information on ingredients	For a mixture, the hazardous ingredients with their concentration or concentration range and their own classification.	Which ingredient carries the hazard, so you can match it to any workplace exposure limit in section 8.
Section 4: First aid measures	First aid by route: breathing in, skin, eyes and swallowing. The main symptoms, both immediate and delayed, and whether urgent medical attention is needed.	The first aid arrangements, what the first aider needs to know, and any delayed effects to watch for.
Section 5: Firefighting measures	Suitable and unsuitable extinguishers, hazardous fumes given off in a fire, and advice for firefighters.	The emergency arrangements for the store, the van and the work area.
Section 6: Accidental release measures	What to do about a spill or leak: protective equipment, keeping it out of drains, and how to contain and clean it up, including methods never to use.	The spill procedure and what the spill kit must hold.
Section 7: Handling and storage	Precautions for safe handling, hygiene such as no eating, drinking or smoking in the work area, and storage conditions, including what it must not be stored with.	Storage location, segregation, quantities kept and the hygiene rules on site.
Section 8: Exposure controls/personal protection	In Great Britain, any workplace exposure limit under COSHH and any occupational exposure limit under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002. Then engineering controls and the exact protective equipment: glove material, thickness and breakthrough time, eye protection and respiratory protection with its filter type.	The control measures. COSHH regulation 7 puts engineering controls and ventilation before personal protective equipment, so read the whole section, not only the PPE line.
Section 9: Physical and chemical properties	Appearance, odour, pH, flash point, vapour pressure, flammability limits and similar measured properties.	Whether it gives off vapour readily, is corrosive or is flammable, which shapes the controls and the storage.
Section 10: Stability and reactivity	Hazardous reactions, conditions to avoid, incompatible materials and hazardous decomposition products.	What must never be mixed or stored together. For cleaning teams, this is where incompatible products are named.
Section 11: Toxicological information	The health effects for each hazard class, from acute toxicity and sensitisation to carcinogenicity, the likely routes into the body, and symptoms. Annex II says it is written mainly for medical and occupational health professionals.	The health effects and routes of exposure. A sensitiser or carcinogen here raises the question of health surveillance under COSHH regulation 11.
Section 12: Ecological information	Toxicity to aquatic and other organisms, persistence, bioaccumulation and mobility in soil.	Why washings and spills must stay out of drains and watercourses.
Section 13: Disposal considerations	How to dispose of the product and its contaminated packaging. It must discourage disposal to sewer.	How empties, rags, washings and part-used containers leave site.
Section 14: Transport information	The UN number, proper shipping name, transport hazard class, packing group and any special precautions.	Not the COSHH assessment itself. Read it with the carriage rules if the product travels in the van.
Section 15: Regulatory information	Other law that applies to the substance or mixture, and whether the supplier carried out a chemical safety assessment.	Any extra legal duty attached to the product, and whether exposure scenarios may be annexed to the sheet.
Section 16: Other information	What changed since the last version, a key to abbreviations, the full text of hazard statements and advice on training for workers.	What changed in this revision, and the training workers need.

The sheet must have no blank subsections. Where a property does not apply or no data exists, sections 9, 10 and 12 must give the reason. Section 11 must say why a hazard class is not classified, such as a lack of data.

Who must provide a safety data sheet, and when

UK REACH Article 31

The duty falls on the supplier, and under UK REACH that includes the merchant or distributor who sold the product to you, not only the manufacturer.

Which products need one

A substance or mixture classified as hazardous under GB CLP must come with a safety data sheet. So must a substance that is persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, very persistent and very bioaccumulative, or on the candidate list of substances of very high concern.

UK REACH Article 31(1)

Products that are not classified

A mixture that is not classified must still have a sheet on request if it contains a hazardous substance above set levels. The same applies if it contains a substance with a Great Britain workplace exposure limit.

UK REACH Article 31(3)

When and in what form

Free of charge, on paper or electronically, no later than the date the product is first supplied. It must be in English, and it must be dated.

UK REACH Article 31(5), (6) and (8)

Updates

The supplier must update the sheet without delay when new information on hazards or risk management arrives, when an authorisation is granted or refused, or when a restriction is imposed. The revision, marked “Revision” with its date, goes free to everyone it supplied in the previous 12 months.

UK REACH Article 31(9)

Products from a retail counter

A hazardous product sold to the general public with enough safety information on it need not come with a sheet, unless a downstream user or distributor asks for one. A business that uses the product in its work is a downstream user. HSE gives construction sites, and businesses using paints, adhesives and cleaning agents in their work, as examples. So ask.

UK REACH Articles 3(13) and 31(4); HSE, UK REACH roles

What the user must do with it

Under UK REACH, a business that uses a chemical at work must identify and apply measures that adequately control the risks the sheet identifies. Under COSHH, the assessment must consider it.

UK REACH Article 37(5); COSHH regulation 6(2)(b)

These are the Great Britain rules. HSE notes that Northern Ireland remains within the EU regulatory system for chemicals, so EU REACH applies there.

A safety data sheet is not a COSHH assessment

The sheet is written by the supplier about the product. The COSHH assessment is written by the employer about the work. Regulation 6 requires the assessment to consider the supplier’s information, including the safety data sheet, alongside the level, type and duration of exposure and the circumstances of the work.

The same two-part resin can be a small repair outdoors on one job and a large pour in an enclosed plant room on the next. The sheet stays the same. The assessment does not.

Some of the substances that harm most people in the trades have no safety data sheet at all. HSE’s L5 names dust from working wood or stone, diesel engine exhaust fume and welding by-products such as fume. These still need assessing, using HSE guidance and other reliable sources.

Start the assessment from the sheet with the free COSHH assessment template, which has a place for each part of the sheet that feeds it.

How to read a safety data sheet in five minutes

On site, before use

A sheet can run to many pages. On site, read these sections first, in this order. The full read belongs in the office, when the assessment is written.

Right product, current version

Check the product name in section 1 against the container. The first page carries the date and, on a revised sheet, the revision date and version.

NoteIf the sheet is older than the product in your hand, ask the supplier for the current one.

What it can do to you

Read section 2: the pictograms, the signal word "Danger" or "Warning", and the hazard statements. Note any other hazards listed, such as dust.

How it is controlled

Read section 8 for any workplace exposure limit, ventilation or extraction, and the exact gloves, eye protection and respiratory protection.

NoteGlove material and breakthrough time matter. A general-purpose glove may not resist a solvent or isocyanate.

How to handle and store it

Read section 7 for handling and storage, and section 10 for materials it must not meet.

If it goes wrong

Read section 4 for first aid and section 6 for spills. Section 5 covers fire.

NoteKnow where the eyewash and the spill kit are before the lid comes off.

Getting rid of it

Read section 13 for how the product and its packaging are disposed of.

Section 11 is written mainly for medical and occupational health professionals. Turn to it when section 2 shows a serious health hazard, such as a sensitiser or carcinogen.

Keeping safety data sheets, and how old is too old

Workers must be able to see them

COSHH regulation 12 requires the information given to employees to include access to any relevant safety data sheet. UK REACH Article 35 gives workers and their representatives the same right.

COSHH regulation 12(2)(a)(iii)

A plainer version is allowed, the sheet still is not

HSE’s L5 accepts that employers may distil the sheet into plainer in-house information and training, such as a toolbox talk. Employees must still be able to see the sheet itself.

HSE L5, paragraphs 256 and 257

A COSHH register keeps them findable

One list of every hazardous product on site or in the van, with its sheet, revision date, assessment and location. The free COSHH register template sets one out.

How old is too old

UK REACH sets no expiry date on a safety data sheet. The test is whether it is the current revision. Suppliers must send revisions to customers supplied in the last 12 months, so check the date when you reorder.

UK REACH Article 31(9); Annex II, point 0.2.5

Keep the information for ten years

A business that uses a chemical in its work is a downstream user under UK REACH. It must keep the information it needs for its UK REACH duties for at least 10 years after it last used the substance or mixture. It must produce it without delay if HSE asks. Keeping superseded sheets, not only the current one, shows which version applied when.

UK REACH Article 36(1)

Exposure scenarios on an extended safety data sheet

Where a chemical safety report is required for a substance, UK REACH requires the relevant exposure scenarios to be attached as an annex to the safety data sheet. A sheet with these annexes is often called an extended safety data sheet. Section 15 says whether a chemical safety assessment was carried out.

UK REACH defines an exposure scenario as the set of conditions, including operational conditions and risk management measures, that describe how a substance is used. It also describes how exposure of people and the environment is controlled. Check that your use and conditions fall inside it.

If your use falls outside the scenario, or is one the supplier advises against, Article 37 requires a chemical safety report of your own. There are exceptions, including total use of less than one tonne a year. Even then, Article 37(6) still requires you to identify and apply measures that adequately control the risks.

You also have the right to tell the supplier about your use in writing, so that it can become an identified use. The other route is to work within the conditions the scenario describes, which also removes the need for a report of your own.

The COSHH register in Unibuild

Every data sheet to hand,
tied to the job that uses it.

In Unibuild, each hazardous substance holds its safety data sheet and its supplier, linked to the jobs, materials and purchase orders that use it. Review dates are tracked, every version is kept, and the current one is the one out on site.

When an auditor or a principal contractor asks for the COSHH register, it is a search by name or supplier, not a spreadsheet somebody else kept.

Book a demo → The health and safety module

A data sheet for every substance held with its supplier
Tied to the job through the materials and purchase orders that use it
Review dates tracked and every version kept
Searched by product name or supplier

Free COSHH templates

Free to use and reuse, no sign-up

Free downloadCOSHH assessment templateOne substance per assessment: the hazards from the safety data sheet, who is exposed and how, the controls, PPE, storage, spills and first aid. Free downloadCOSHH register templateEvery hazardous substance on site or in the van, with its data sheet date, assessment reference, location and review date. Free downloadCOSHH risk assessment, pre-filledA risk assessment and method statement for work with cement, solvents, resins, dusts and fume on site, filled in and editable. Free downloadCOSHH symbols posterThe nine hazard pictograms and what each one means, for the store, the van or the welfare cabin. A4 or A3.

Asked most often

Safety data sheet questions

What does SDS stand for?

SDS stands for safety data sheet. It is the document a supplier must provide with a hazardous chemical under UK REACH. It describes the hazards and safe use, storage and disposal under 16 fixed headings.

What is the difference between an MSDS and an SDS?

MSDS, material safety data sheet, is the older name for the same kind of document. In Great Britain the law calls it a safety data sheet and fixes its 16 headings in UK REACH Annex II. An old sheet headed MSDS may not follow that layout, so ask the supplier for the current version.

Is a COSHH data sheet the same as a safety data sheet?

Yes. "COSHH data sheet", "COSHH sheet" and "COSHH safety sheet" are trade names for the safety data sheet. The COSHH Regulations do not create a separate sheet. They require your COSHH assessment to consider the information on the supplier's safety data sheet.

Where do I get the safety data sheet for a product?

From the supplier. For a hazardous product, the merchant, distributor or manufacturer that sold it to you must provide it free of charge, on paper or electronically, by the first delivery. Most manufacturers also publish their sheets on their websites. Check that the product name and version match the container.

How many sections does a safety data sheet have?

Sixteen, always in the same order, running from identification and hazards through handling, exposure controls and toxicology to disposal, transport, regulatory and other information. Most have set subsections. The sheet itself can be any length, in proportion to the hazard.

Is a safety data sheet a COSHH assessment?

No. HSE says plainly that a safety data sheet is not a risk assessment. The sheet describes the product. The COSHH assessment describes how your workers are exposed to it on your job and what controls you use.

Do safety data sheets expire?

There is no expiry date in UK REACH. What matters is that you hold the current revision. The supplier must update the sheet without delay when new hazard information arrives, and send it to customers supplied in the previous 12 months.

Do I need a safety data sheet for a product bought from a DIY shop or supermarket?

A hazardous product sold to the public with enough safety information on its label need not come with a sheet. A business using it at work counts as a downstream user and can ask for one, and the supplier must then provide it. For anything used regularly at work, ask.

Do employees have a right to see safety data sheets?

Yes. COSHH regulation 12 requires employees to have access to any relevant safety data sheet, and UK REACH Article 35 gives workers and their representatives access to the information. A simpler in-house summary can sit alongside it, but not replace it.

Do I need to keep old safety data sheets?

A business using a chemical in its work is a downstream user. UK REACH Article 36 requires it to keep the information its UK REACH duties need for at least 10 years after last use. Keeping superseded sheets in the COSHH register is the simplest way to show which version applied when.

The COSHH guide

Read in any order

GuideWhat is COSHHWhat COSHH means, who it applies to, and how a substance is assessed and controlled at work. GuideThe COSHH Regulations 2002Each regulation in plain words: assessment, control, exposure limits, monitoring, health surveillance and training. GuideCOSHH symbolsThe nine hazard pictograms, what each one means, and how they replaced the old orange squares. You are hereSafety data sheetsThe sixteen sections of a safety data sheet, and which of them feed the COSHH assessment. GuideWorkplace exposure limitsEH40 and the workplace exposure limits: what the numbers mean, how they are averaged, and what the law asks. GuideLocal exhaust ventilationLEV for dust, fume and vapour: how it works, who checks it, and the thorough examination every 14 months. GuideFace fit testingWhy tight-fitting masks need a face fit test, who can do it, and when to test again. GuideHealth surveillanceWhen COSHH requires health surveillance, what it involves, and the 40-year health record. GuideCOSHH storageStoring hazardous substances safely: COSHH cabinets, the store, the van and incompatible products. GuideCOSHH trainingWhat the law says COSHH training must cover, who needs it, and how to show it was given.

Sources

Great Britain law and HSE guidance, read on the dates above. Northern Ireland has its own COSHH Regulations.

Next step

The COSHH register,
tied to the job.

Unibuild keeps each substance’s data sheet and supplier against the jobs, materials and purchase orders that use it, with review dates tracked and every version kept.

Book a demo → See health and safety on Unibuild