Cleaning Risk Assessment Template UK: Complete Guide

Every UK cleaning company with five or more employees is legally required to record risk assessments under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Even smaller teams need one in practice, because most commercial clients won't sign a contract without seeing your risk assessment process. This guide gives you a template structure you can apply to any cleaning job, from a small office to a multi-site contract.

What a cleaning risk assessment needs to cover

A risk assessment identifies what could cause harm on a job, who might be affected, and what you're doing to control it. For cleaning work, the hazards are fairly consistent across most sites, which is why a reusable template works well.

• Slips, trips and falls — wet floors, trailing cables, uneven surfaces
• Manual handling — lifting equipment, moving furniture, carrying supplies
• Working at height — reaching high windows, shelving, light fittings
• Electrical equipment — vacuum cleaners, floor buffers, extension leads
• Hazardous substances — covered in detail in a separate COSHH assessment
• Lone working — particularly for early morning or evening contracts
• Contact with bodily fluids or biohazards, in healthcare or education settings

A simple five-column structure

Most compliant risk assessments follow the same basic format: hazard, who might be harmed, existing controls, additional action needed, and a risk rating (typically low/medium/high, based on likelihood and severity). Keeping this consistent across every site makes it far easier for staff to follow and for you to review later.

Site-specific vs generic assessments

A generic risk assessment covering standard cleaning hazards is a good starting point, but it should always be adapted to the specific site — a school corridor during pick-up time carries different risks to an empty office at 6am. Site-specific factors to check include floor type, public access during cleaning hours, the presence of vulnerable people (children, patients, elderly residents), and any site-specific hazards the client should flag to you in advance.

Where risk assessments fit into your wider compliance

A risk assessment is one of several documents a professional cleaning company should hold on file. If you're not sure what else you need, our guide to 10 Documents Every Cleaning Company Should Have covers the full compliance checklist, including method statements, insurance certificates and staff training records.

Reviewing and updating risk assessments

A risk assessment isn't a one-off exercise. Review it whenever the site changes, after any accident or near-miss, when new equipment or chemicals are introduced, and at a minimum once a year. Keeping a review date on file is often what separates a compliant business from one that just has a document sitting in a drawer.

Frequently Asked Questions