Colour Coded Cleaning: The NHS Chart for Clinics

The four colours are simple. What a clinic manager has to settle is which list the building follows, what yellow means in it, and whether anybody can be held to it. The answers come from two NHS documents and from COSHH, a statute that says nothing about colours.

Four colours, two NHS lists

What colour coded cleaning means

Colour coded cleaning means every cloth, mop, bucket and pair of reusable gloves is assigned to one type of area, and its colour shows which. NHS England's National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025 say the scheme is "widely applied throughout healthcare organisations to reduce cross-contamination risk between different types of area", and give bathrooms and kitchens as the example. They also say why it works: it is simple enough that staff can easily observe it.

The colour goes on the equipment. The 2025 standards name reusable and disposable cloths, mops, buckets and non-disposable gloves, and say the coding should be clear and permanent. They add that an organisation can buy colour-coded aprons if it wants to stop one apron being worn in different risk areas. Cleaning chemicals are left out of the scheme, and so is catering equipment such as chopping boards, which has its own food hygiene rules.

The scheme came from the National Patient Safety Agency, which NHS England's own cleanliness charter template still credits. The 2025 standards replaced the 2021 edition on 5 February 2025, so a chart headed "2021" is out of date even if its colours have not changed.

The colours side by side

There are two lists. HTM 01-05, the decontamination guidance for dental practices in England, prints the version for primary care medical and dental premises. The 2025 standards print the hospital version. Reading across the rows, the two lists agree on red, blue and green and differ on yellow.

Every cell above is the documents' own wording. Both lists give red to the toilets and washrooms and green to the kitchen, and the 2025 standards add that red cloths, mops, buckets and gloves are only used in bathroom facilities. They also say any deviation from the scheme requires approval from NHS England.

Which list a small clinic follows

For a dental practice the relevant document is HTM 01-05, and its wording is mild: it says the national scheme "may be useful" for floor and general surface cleaning. It suggests the scheme. The dental practice cleaning guide covers the rest of what HTM 01-05 asks of the cleaning, including frequencies and the briefing for cleaning staff, so it is not repeated here.

A physiotherapy clinic, a podiatrist or a private GP room is not covered by HTM 01-05, which is written for dental practices. The primary care list is still the closest published match to a building with a treatment room, a reception, toilets and a staff kitchen, and the NHS Estates and Facilities statement on yellow is written for primary care generally, not only dentistry. Whether the NHS standards themselves bind a private clinic is a question about their scope, covered in the guide to the national standards of healthcare cleanliness for clinics.

Is any of this a legal requirement?

What COSHH says, and does not say

People search for "COSHH colour codes" as if the colours came from the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, but they don't. Regulation 7 requires every employer to ensure that employees' exposure to substances hazardous to health is prevented or, where that is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled. That is a duty about exposure to substances hazardous to health, which include cleaning chemicals. The current text of the regulations, read in full on legislation.gov.uk, mentions colour only in the context of making colours for pottery.

The NHS scheme says the same thing from its side: cleaning products (chemicals and detergents) do not need to be colour coded at all. So the colours sit on the equipment, and COSHH covers substances hazardous to health, which include the cleaning chemicals in the bucket.

Outside healthcare, codes vary

The British Institute of Cleaning Science, the professional body for the industry, says that with the exception of the healthcare industry no national or international compulsory colour-coding standards exist. It notes that systems generally use red, blue, green and yellow, that white can be added for a particular site and that striped cloths extend the range further. Its golden rule is to work from the cleanest area toward the dirtiest.

So an office, a gym or a yoga studio can run its own code, and two buildings can give yellow different jobs. Write the code down for that building and teach it to whoever cleans there; BICSc calls it vital that the system forms part of employee induction or continuous training. It also points out that some people are colour blind and may not know it, so it says colour identification testing should be part of induction training, and mentions linking a number system to the colours.

Making the code work in your building

Why mixing cloths matters

The 2025 standards say micro-organisms can be transferred between surfaces on cleaning cloths and wipes as well as on hands, and that care should be taken to avoid cross-contamination. They also say to clean from top to bottom and from clean to dirty. A cloth that wipes a toilet seat and then a treatment couch has done the transfer the scheme exists to prevent. The colour makes the cloth's job visible to someone moving quickly between rooms.

HTM 01-05 also asks for clinical-area cleaning kit to be stored apart from general kit.

Asking a contractor to work to it

A contractor should be able to work to your written code instead of bringing their own. Ask them to confirm, in writing, which colour they will use in each room on your sheet, and how they keep kit for clinical rooms apart from kit for general areas. If their usual system gives yellow a different job from yours, settle that before the first visit.

Crystal Clear Cleans holds a cleaning contract with a dental practice in Uxbridge and cleans commercial premises across the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow. Cleaners are DBS checked and insured, and visits can run from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, so a clean can fall outside clinic hours. How a contract clean is set up, including the written specification, is on the office and commercial cleaning page. Send your room list and your colour code through the quote form, and ask for the written specification to name the colour for each room.