COSHH Regulation and Duties

COSHH Enforcement and Penalties

How COSHH Is Enforced and What the Penalties Are

COSHH is enforced, and the consequences of getting it badly wrong range from a notice telling you to put things right to prosecution after someone is harmed. For hospitality, enforcement most often shows up as an environmental health officer or HSE inspector noticing chemical risks during a visit and requiring action. Knowing who enforces COSHH, the tools they use, and the penalties that can follow helps you take it seriously without panic. This article explains how COSHH enforcement works in practice, what improvement and prohibition notices are, and what happens when a breach causes harm.

Key takeaways

COSHH is enforced by local authorities for most hospitality premises and by the HSE for higher-risk workplaces.

Improvement notices require a breach to be put right by a deadline; failing to comply is itself an offence.

Prohibition notices stop a dangerous activity until the risk is controlled and appear on the public register.

Serious breaches can lead to prosecution, with fines scaled to the breach and business size, and individuals can be prosecuted too.

The cheapest route is ordinary good management: current assessments, labelled chemicals, safe storage, and trained staff.

Who Enforces COSHH in Hospitality

Enforcement of health and safety law, including COSHH, is split between the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities, depending on the type of premises. For most restaurants, cafes, pubs, and hotels, the enforcing authority for general health and safety is the local authority, and the same environmental health officers who inspect food hygiene often cover COSHH too. The HSE leads on higher-risk workplaces. In day-to-day terms this means the inspector who reviews your COSHH is usually the same person who looks at your food safety, which is why the two are so often considered together. Both authorities have the same powers under the Health and Safety at Work Act to inspect, to require improvements, to stop dangerous activities, and ultimately to prosecute.

Improvement and Prohibition Notices

Inspectors have two main formal tools short of prosecution. An improvement notice is served when there is a breach of the law that needs putting right; it sets out what is wrong, why, and a deadline to fix it, and failing to comply by the deadline is itself an offence. A prohibition notice is more serious and is used when an activity carries a risk of serious personal injury; it requires the activity to stop, immediately or by a set date, until the risk is dealt with. For a hospitality business a prohibition notice could, for example, stop the use of a dangerous process or area until controls are in place. Notices are recorded on the HSE public register, which means they are visible to anyone who looks, with reputational consequences on top of the legal ones.

Fines, Prosecution, and the Real Cost

Where breaches are serious, or where a notice is ignored, the case can go to prosecution. Health and safety offences are dealt with under sentencing guidelines that scale the fine to the seriousness of the breach and the size of the business, so penalties can be substantial, and individuals such as directors and managers can be prosecuted as well as the company. Beyond the fine, the real cost of a serious COSHH failure includes legal fees, time, the impact of a prohibition notice that halts trading, higher insurance, and the reputational damage of a public conviction. For most hospitality businesses the day-to-day risk is not a dramatic prosecution but an improvement notice that requires work and signals to inspectors that the business is not managing risk well, which colours every future visit.

How to Stay on the Right Side of Enforcement

Staying compliant is far cheaper than dealing with enforcement, and the actions that achieve it are the ordinary ones. Keep a current COSHH assessment that reflects the products actually on site, hold the safety data sheets behind it, label every container, store chemicals sensibly away from food, and train staff on the chemicals they use with records to show it. Review the assessment regularly and whenever something changes. The pattern inspectors reward is evidence of ongoing, genuine management rather than a document produced once and forgotten. When enforcement does land, the businesses that fare best are those that respond promptly, fix the issue properly, and can show the failure was an exception in an otherwise well-run system rather than the normal state of affairs.

What to do next

Fix the quick visible signals before an inspection

Label decanted bottles, tidy the chemical store, and move chemicals away from food, since these are the first things an inspector notices.

Keep evidence of ongoing management

Maintain current assessments, dated reviews, and training records so you can show genuine, continuing control rather than a one-off document.

Respond promptly to any notice

If an improvement notice is served, fix the issue properly and within the deadline, and keep proof of what you did.

Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake

Assuming COSHH is never actually enforced in small venues

Instead

Environmental health officers who inspect food hygiene routinely cover COSHH and can serve improvement or prohibition notices on any premises, regardless of size.

Mistake

Ignoring or missing the deadline on an improvement notice

Instead

Failing to comply with a notice by its deadline is a separate offence. Treat any notice as a priority and keep evidence that you acted in time.

Frequently asked questions

Who enforces COSHH in a restaurant or pub?

For most restaurants, pubs, cafes, and hotels the enforcing authority for health and safety is the local authority, and the environmental health officers who inspect food hygiene often cover COSHH too. The HSE leads on higher-risk workplaces.

What is the difference between an improvement notice and a prohibition notice?

An improvement notice requires a breach to be corrected by a deadline. A prohibition notice is more serious and requires a dangerous activity to stop, immediately or by a set date, until the risk is dealt with. Both can appear on the HSE public register.

What are the penalties for breaching COSHH?

Penalties range from improvement and prohibition notices to prosecution. Serious cases can bring substantial fines scaled to the breach and business size, and directors and managers can be prosecuted as well as the company, on top of legal costs and reputational damage.

Can an individual manager be prosecuted under COSHH?

Yes. As well as the business, individuals such as directors and managers can be prosecuted where a breach is connected to their consent, neglect, or failure to act, which is why personal responsibility for COSHH matters.

COSHH Regulation and Duties