This is a simple, quick and very effective means to complying with the Selection, Use and Maintenance of respirators and other RPD; required under the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations (and CoSHH).

Useful for complying and auditing compliance where respirators, air supplied breathing apparatus and even UWBA, for divers: filling in the required section takes only seconds but will provide a long, historic record for your duties, whether these be under the PPE regulations, CoSHH, or Employment regulations, where exposure records may have to be kept for up to thirty years, following the last day of an employee's exposure to potentially harmful substances.

When used for RPD compliance, records must be kept for five years following the last use of the RPD concerned; each piece of equipment having its own record.

The form not only records use, inspections and maintenance, it is used to record who used it, for what conditions and hazards and when -  all simply by putting a symbol in its calendar format boxes. 
At the end of the twelve month period it records, a new form is issued (to be kept with or near to the RPD) and the old is scanned to file, for consolidation in your audit records.

Since 2005, anyone who uses respiratory protection must accord with HSE guidance: HSG53 (http://www.hseni.gov.uk/hsg53_respiratory_protective_equipment_at_work.pdf), which requires a systemic approach to managing respiratory protection at work.

But; equally important to keeping you in your Insurer's and auditor's 'good books'; using formal approaches, such as this, helps invoke regularity and discipline to the way you manage your safety programme and the way employees percieve the work place. Good safety can be measured in good housekeeping, rather than in how many boxes you've ticked! 

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