Cleaning Company Risk Assessment: What to Include and How to Write One

TL;DR: A cleaning company risk assessment must cover the specific hazards your cleaners actually face — chemical exposure, slips on wet floors, manual handling of heavy buckets and equipment, lone working at client sites, biological hazards, and more. A generic template will not cut it. In the UK, employers with five or more staff must record the assessment in writing; in Ireland, every employer needs a written safety statement regardless of size. This guide walks you through the HSE 5-step process applied specifically to cleaning operations, lists the hazards you need to include, explains what inspectors look for, and shows you how to avoid the most common mistakes.

Introduction — Why a Generic Risk Assessment Falls Short

If you run a cleaning company, you have probably been told you need a risk assessment. So you download a free template from the internet, fill in a few boxes, and file it away. Job done — or so you think.

The problem is that a generic, one-size-fits-all risk assessment does not reflect the actual hazards your cleaning staff deal with every day. It might cover “slips, trips and falls” in a single bullet point, but it will not mention the specific risks of mopping a tiled kitchen floor with a bleach-based solution at six in the morning while working alone in an empty office building.

Cleaning is a physically demanding, chemically intensive job carried out in other people’s premises — often at unsociable hours, often alone. That combination creates a hazard profile that is genuinely different from a typical office, shop, or workshop. Your risk assessment needs to reflect that.

This guide is written for cleaning business owners — whether you are a sole trader doing residential cleans or a small company with a handful of operatives working across commercial sites. We will walk through what the law requires, how to apply the HSE’s recognised 5-step process to your specific operations, which hazards you absolutely must cover, and how to avoid the mistakes that trip up most cleaning businesses.

If you are looking for a broader overview of risk assessments in general, our health and safety risk assessment guide covers the fundamentals. For a wider look at health and safety obligations specific to cleaning businesses, see our health and safety for cleaning businesses guide.

What the Law Actually Requires

Before we get into the detail of what to include, it helps to understand the legal framework — because the requirements differ depending on whether you are based in the UK or Ireland.

United Kingdom

The overarching duty comes from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Section 2 requires every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees. That includes providing safe systems of work, adequate training, and a safe working environment — even when that environment is a client’s premises.

The specific duty to carry out a risk assessment comes from the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR 1999), Regulation 3. This requires every employer to make a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks to the health and safety of employees and anyone else affected by the work.

Here is the key threshold: if you have five or more employees, you must record the significant findings of that assessment in writing. If you have fewer than five, you are still legally required to carry out the assessment — you just do not technically have to write it down. In practice, you should always document it. Without a written record, you have no evidence of compliance if you are ever inspected, challenged by a client, or face a claim.

Ireland

In Ireland, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (SHWW Act 2005) sets a higher bar. Section 19 requires every employer — regardless of the number of employees — to identify hazards, carry out a risk assessment, and prepare a written safety statement based on that assessment. There is no small business exemption.

The safety statement must specify the hazards identified, detail the control measures in place, and be brought to the attention of every employee. It must also be reviewed whenever there is a significant change in the workplace.

What This Means for You

Whether you have one employee or five, whether you are based in Birmingham or Belfast or Dublin, the practical advice is the same: write it down, make it specific to your cleaning operations, and keep it up to date. If you want a broader checklist of everything you need to have in place, our health and safety compliance checklist covers the full picture.

The HSE 5-Step Risk Assessment Process Applied to Cleaning

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends a straightforward 5-step process for carrying out a risk assessment. It is designed to be used by non-specialists, which makes it ideal for cleaning business owners managing their own compliance. Here is how each step applies to a cleaning operation.

Step 1: Identify the Hazards

Walk through a typical cleaning job — or better yet, several different types of job — and note down everything that could cause harm. Think about the chemicals you use, the equipment you carry, the surfaces you walk on, the premises you work in, and the conditions you work under.

For a cleaning company, your hazard list will typically include:

• Chemical products (bleach, degreasers, limescale removers, floor polish, sanitisers)
• Wet and slippery floors
• Trailing cables from vacuum cleaners and floor polishers
• Heavy lifting (mop buckets, waste bags, crates of supplies)
• Repetitive movements (wiping, scrubbing, vacuuming)
• Working alone at client sites, often outside normal hours
• Biological hazards (needles in bins, bodily fluids in washrooms, contaminated waste)
• Electrical equipment (both yours and the client’s)
• Working at height (step ladders for high dusting, window cleaning)
• Contact with aggressive or unpredictable people (in some settings)

Do not try to guess hazards from memory. Visit the actual sites, watch the work being done, and talk to the people doing it. They will know where the real risks are.

Step 2: Decide Who Might Be Harmed and How

For each hazard, think about who could be affected. In a cleaning context, that is not just your employees. It includes:

• Your cleaning operatives — the people most directly exposed
• Client staff — who might slip on a wet floor you have just mopped
• Visitors and members of the public — in commercial settings, hotels, or public buildings
• Yourself — if you are a sole trader working on site
• Vulnerable groups — young workers, pregnant workers, or anyone with a pre-existing health condition (such as asthma aggravated by cleaning chemicals)

Be specific. Do not write “employees could be harmed.” Write “Cleaner could develop dermatitis from prolonged skin contact with undiluted bleach solution when cleaning bathroom fittings.”

Step 3: Evaluate the Risks and Decide on Precautions

For each hazard, assess how likely it is to cause harm and how serious the outcome could be. Then decide what control measures you need. The standard hierarchy of controls applies:

1. Eliminate the hazard entirely (e.g., switch from a chemical cleaner to a steam cleaner where possible)
2. Substitute with something less hazardous (e.g., replace a solvent-based degreaser with a water-based alternative)
3. Engineering controls (e.g., use a mop bucket with a wringer to reduce manual handling strain)
4. Administrative controls (e.g., display wet floor signs, schedule cleaning outside peak hours)
5. Personal protective equipment (PPE) as a last resort (e.g., chemical-resistant gloves, safety goggles)

Most cleaning risk assessments will rely heavily on substitution, administrative controls, and PPE. That is fine — the important thing is that you have thought it through and can justify your choices.

Step 4: Record Your Findings

Write everything down. For each hazard, record:

• What the hazard is
• Who is at risk
• What controls are already in place
• What further action is needed (if any)
• Who is responsible for that action
• When it will be done by

This does not need to be a 50-page document. A clear table, covering each significant hazard with a row of practical information, is perfectly acceptable — and it is exactly what an inspector will expect to see.

Step 5: Review and Update Regularly

A risk assessment is not a one-off exercise. You must review it regularly — and immediately if anything significant changes. For a cleaning company, triggers for a review include:

• Taking on a new client site with different hazards
• Introducing a new chemical product or piece of equipment
• An accident, near-miss, or case of ill health
• A change in staff (new starters need to understand the risks)
• A change in legislation or industry guidance

We will cover review frequency in more detail later in this guide.

Specific Hazards to Include in a Cleaning Company Risk Assessment

This is where a cleaning risk assessment diverges sharply from a generic template. The following hazards are either unique to cleaning work or significantly more relevant than they would be in a typical office or workshop environment.

Chemical Exposure

This is arguably the single biggest hazard category for cleaning companies. Your staff work with chemicals every single day — often multiple products in a single shift.

Common hazardous substances in cleaning include:

Product type	Examples	Key risks
Bleach and chlorine-based cleaners	Domestos, sodium hypochlorite solutions	Skin and eye irritation, respiratory irritation, toxic gas if mixed with acids
Degreasers and alkaline cleaners	Oven cleaners, kitchen degreasers	Chemical burns, skin sensitisation
Acidic cleaners	Limescale removers, toilet descalers	Burns to skin and eyes, corrosion
Sanitisers and disinfectants	Quaternary ammonium compounds (quats)	Skin irritation, occupational asthma
Floor polish and strippers	Solvent-based and water-based formulations	Slip hazards, inhalation risks, flammability
Air fresheners and aerosols	Various proprietary products	Respiratory sensitisation, propellant risks

Every chemical product you use must be covered by a COSHH assessment — that is a legal requirement separate from (but closely linked to) your general risk assessment. Your risk assessment should reference COSHH and confirm that assessments are in place for all substances used. For a detailed walkthrough of the COSHH process, see our COSHH assessment guide.

Key controls to consider include: always reading and following Safety Data Sheets, never mixing products (the classic bleach-plus-acid reaction produces chlorine gas), providing chemical-resistant gloves and eye protection, ensuring adequate ventilation, and training staff on safe dilution rates and storage.

Slips, Trips and Falls

Slips, trips and falls are the most common cause of workplace injury in the cleaning sector — and the irony is that cleaning activities themselves often create the hazard. Wet floors are an inherent part of the job.

Specific scenarios to cover include:

• Wet floors after mopping — both the risk to your cleaner and to building occupants
• Trailing cables from vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, or extension leads
• Uneven surfaces at client sites (worn carpets, loose tiles, damaged thresholds)
• Cluttered walkways in storerooms, kitchens, and back-of-house areas
• Outdoor paths and car parks in wet, icy, or dark conditions (particularly relevant for early-morning or late-evening shifts)

Controls include using wet floor signs consistently, mopping in sections to keep escape routes dry, choosing flat-soled slip-resistant footwear, managing cables with cable covers or retractable reels, and reporting damaged flooring to the client.

Manual Handling

Cleaning involves far more physical handling than most people realise. Your staff are carrying, lifting, pushing, and pulling throughout every shift.

Common manual handling tasks in cleaning:

• Lifting and carrying mop buckets filled with water (a standard 15-litre bucket weighs roughly 15 kg when full)
• Carrying vacuum cleaners up and down stairs
• Transporting cleaning caddies, supply crates, and equipment to and from vehicles
• Lifting and moving waste bags — particularly heavy or awkwardly shaped bags from commercial bins
• Pushing and pulling floor-cleaning machines on commercial sites
• Repetitive movements such as wiping, scrubbing, and wringing mops, which can cause upper limb disorders over time

Controls include training staff in correct lifting techniques, using buckets with wringers and wheels, keeping bucket fill levels manageable, using lightweight equipment where available, and rotating tasks to avoid prolonged repetitive movements.

Lone Working

Lone working is extremely common in the cleaning industry. Many cleaners work alone at client premises, often during early mornings, evenings, or weekends when the building is otherwise empty.

The risks of lone working include:

• No immediate assistance available in the event of an accident or medical emergency
• Increased vulnerability if confronted by intruders or aggressive individuals
• Greater psychological stress and isolation, particularly during unsociable hours
• Difficulty raising the alarm (especially in large or unfamiliar buildings)

Controls include implementing a check-in system (e.g., the cleaner calls or texts at set intervals), providing a lone worker alarm or app, ensuring the cleaner has a charged mobile phone, briefing staff on the premises layout including exits and first aid provisions, and having a clear procedure for what to do if a check-in is missed.

Biological Hazards

Cleaners — particularly those working in washrooms, healthcare settings, schools, or public buildings — can come into contact with biological hazards that carry a genuine risk of infection.

These include:

• Hypodermic needles (needlestick injuries) found in waste bins, behind toilets, or in public areas
• Bodily fluids — blood, vomit, urine, faeces — in washrooms or following incidents
• Contaminated waste in sanitary bins, clinical waste bags, or sharps containers
• Mould and fungal growth in damp environments

Controls include providing disposable gloves and aprons, never reaching into bins by hand (use litter pickers or tip the bin), following a specific bodily fluids spillage procedure, ensuring hepatitis B vaccination is offered where appropriate, and providing sharps containers and training on needlestick injury protocols.

Electrical Safety

Your cleaning staff use electrical equipment on every job — vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, steam cleaners, and extension leads at a minimum. They also work around the client’s electrical installations and appliances.

Key electrical risks include:

• Damaged cables or plugs on cleaning equipment (frayed leads, cracked casings)
• Overloading sockets with extension leads and adapters
• Contact with water while using electrical equipment on wet surfaces
• Client equipment that may be poorly maintained or faulty
• PAT testing — portable appliance testing of your own equipment to confirm it is safe

Controls include carrying out visual inspections of equipment before each use, implementing a regular PAT testing schedule for your own equipment, training staff never to use equipment with visible damage, using residual current devices (RCDs) where available, and reporting any concerns about client equipment to the client immediately.

Work at Height

Not all cleaning work stays at ground level. If your services include window cleaning (even at low level), high-level dusting, cleaning light fittings, or any task that requires a step ladder or platform, then work at height is a relevant hazard.

Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (UK), you must:

• Avoid work at height wherever possible
• Where it cannot be avoided, use the safest practicable means (e.g., an extendable pole rather than a ladder)
• Plan and organise the work, ensure appropriate equipment, and supervise adequately

Controls include using extendable tools to avoid climbing where possible, inspecting step ladders before use, training staff on safe ladder use (three points of contact, correct angle, stable base), and never standing on chairs, desks, or other improvised platforms.

Violence and Aggression

This may not be the first hazard that comes to mind, but violence and aggression is a real risk for cleaners — particularly those working alone in public-facing environments, late at night, or in settings where the public has access.

Scenarios include:

• A lone cleaner encountering an intruder or trespasser in an empty building
• Verbal abuse or threatening behaviour from building occupants (e.g., in pubs, shops, or residential blocks)
• Working in environments with a known risk of aggression (e.g., hospitals, hostels, public transport facilities)

Controls include conducting a site-specific risk assessment before starting work at any new premises, providing conflict avoidance training, ensuring lone workers have a means of raising the alarm, and having a clear policy on when staff should withdraw from a situation rather than confront it.

Our Cleaning Business Kit includes a pre-filled cleaning operations risk assessment covering 8 operations and 29 specific hazards — ready to use in minutes.

What Inspectors Actually Look For

If the HSE or a local authority environmental health officer inspects your cleaning business, they are not looking for a perfect, academic document. They are looking for evidence that you have genuinely thought about the risks your staff face and put sensible measures in place.

Specifically, they will check:

• Is it specific? A risk assessment that could belong to any business is a red flag. It should clearly describe cleaning-specific hazards, name the products you use, and reference the types of sites you work at.
• Is it up to date? An assessment dated three years ago, with no reviews and no changes, suggests it has been gathering dust. They want to see review dates and evidence of updates.
• Does it match reality? If your assessment says “all staff wear chemical-resistant gloves” but your operatives are using thin disposable gloves with a solvent-based product, that is a problem. The assessment must reflect what actually happens on site.
• Are staff aware of it? Inspectors may ask your employees whether they have seen the risk assessment, whether they know what hazards they face, and what they should do in an emergency. If your team draws a blank, the document is worthless.
• Are COSHH assessments in place? For a cleaning company, this is almost guaranteed to be checked. They will want to see that every hazardous substance used has a corresponding COSHH assessment and that staff know how to handle it safely.
• Is there evidence of training? Records showing that staff have been trained on the risks, the controls, and the correct use of equipment and PPE.

The bottom line: an inspector wants to see a living document that proves you are managing risk in practice, not just on paper.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Having reviewed hundreds of cleaning company risk assessments, these are the mistakes that come up time and again.

Being Too Generic

This is the number one problem. Downloading a free template from the internet and changing the company name at the top does not constitute a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. If your document does not mention the specific chemicals you use, the types of premises you clean, or the particular challenges your staff face, it is not fit for purpose.

Not Reviewing It

A risk assessment that was written when the business started and has never been looked at since is almost as bad as not having one at all. The law requires regular review, and the reality of your business changes constantly — new clients, new products, new staff. Your assessment needs to keep pace.

Not Involving Your Staff

Your cleaning operatives know the risks better than anyone. They know which client sites have dodgy flooring, which products irritate their skin, and which buildings feel unsafe at night. If you write the risk assessment without consulting them, you will miss things — and they will have no ownership of the controls you put in place.

Treating It as a Paperwork Exercise

A risk assessment that lives in a drawer (or a folder on your laptop that no one ever opens) is not protecting anyone. The findings need to be communicated to staff, acted on, and visible in the way work is actually carried out.

Ignoring Site-Specific Risks

A cleaning company works across multiple premises, each with its own hazards. A risk assessment that only describes “generic” cleaning work without accounting for the specific risks at each client site is incomplete. You should carry out a brief site-specific assessment for each new premises, or at least note the additional hazards that apply.

Failing to Record Near-Misses

A mop bucket that nearly fell down a staircase, a bottle of bleach that was left uncapped, a near-slip on a polished floor — these are all warning signs. If you do not have a system for recording and learning from near-misses, you are missing valuable information that should feed into your risk assessment reviews.

How Often to Review and Update

There is no single legal answer to “how often should I review my risk assessment?” The law says you must review it when there is reason to believe it is no longer valid or when there has been a significant change. In practice, for a cleaning company, that means:

• At least annually as a minimum scheduled review — even if nothing obvious has changed, it is good practice to confirm the assessment is still current
• Whenever you take on a new client site — different premises bring different hazards
• Whenever you introduce a new chemical product or piece of equipment — even switching brands can change the risk profile
• After any accident, incident, or near-miss — use the event as a trigger to reassess
• When new staff join — particularly if they are young workers, new to the industry, or have specific health conditions
• When legislation or guidance changes — rare, but it does happen

A practical approach is to schedule a formal review annually (put it in your calendar) and carry out ad-hoc reviews whenever one of the above triggers occurs. Record the date and outcome of every review, even if the conclusion is “no changes required.” That record demonstrates to an inspector that you are actively managing the process.

Template vs Custom: Pros, Cons, and Why Pre-Filled Templates Save Time

When it comes to creating your cleaning company risk assessment, you broadly have three options:

Option 1: Write It from Scratch

You start with a blank page and build the entire assessment yourself.

Pros:

• Completely tailored to your business
• Forces you to think through every hazard in detail

Cons:

• Extremely time-consuming, especially if you are not a health and safety professional
• High risk of missing important hazards or legal requirements
• Formatting and structure may not meet expectations

Option 2: Use a Generic Free Template

You download a free risk assessment template from the internet and fill it in.

Pros:

• Quick and free
• Provides a basic structure

Cons:

• Almost certainly too generic for a cleaning company
• May not cover cleaning-specific hazards (chemical exposure, lone working, biological hazards)
• May not reflect current UK or Irish legislation
• An inspector will see through it immediately

Option 3: Use a Pre-Filled, Industry-Specific Template

You use a template that has been written specifically for cleaning operations, with the common hazards, control measures, and legal references already populated — and you tailor it to your business.

Pros:

• Saves significant time — hours rather than days
• Covers the hazards that actually apply to cleaning work
• Written to meet the legal standard of “suitable and sufficient”
• Easy to customise for your specific operations and client sites
• Gives you a professional, structured document from day one

Cons:

• Small upfront cost (but negligible compared to the time saved or the cost of non-compliance)

For most cleaning business owners, the third option is the clear winner. You get the benefit of professional health and safety knowledge built into the template, without having to start from zero or pay for a consultant.

If you want to see what a properly structured cleaning risk assessment looks like before you commit to anything, you can download a free sample from our resource library. It will give you a clear idea of the format, level of detail, and structure that meets the legal standard.

Summary

A cleaning company risk assessment is not a box-ticking exercise — it is a legal requirement and a practical tool that protects your staff, your clients, and your business.

To get it right:

1. Understand your legal obligations. In the UK, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and MHSWR 1999 set the framework. In Ireland, the SHWW Act 2005 requires a written safety statement from every employer. Know what applies to you.

2. Follow the HSE 5-step process. Identify hazards, decide who might be harmed, evaluate the risks, record your findings, and review regularly. It is a proven, practical approach.

3. Cover cleaning-specific hazards. Chemical exposure, slips and trips, manual handling, lone working, biological hazards, electrical safety, work at height, and violence and aggression. A generic template will miss most of these.

4. Make it real. Your assessment must reflect what actually happens on your jobs — the products you use, the sites you work at, the hours your staff work. Inspectors will check.

5. Keep it alive. Review at least annually and after any significant change. Record the review dates. Involve your staff.

6. Do not start from scratch if you do not have to. A pre-filled, cleaning-specific template gives you a professional foundation that you can tailor to your business in a fraction of the time.

Getting your risk assessment right is one of the most important things you can do as a cleaning business owner. It keeps your people safe, keeps you legal, and gives clients confidence that you take your responsibilities seriously.