Guidance · Reviewed August 2026
How to carry out a DSE workstation assessment, what good posture actually looks like, what the record needs to show, and when to review it.
The short answer
A DSE assessment is a workstation risk assessment required by the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 for anyone who is a DSE user. It is a legal requirement, it covers home workstations as well as office ones, and HSE publishes a free checklist you can use as the basis of it.
Who Needs One
Everyone who qualifies as a DSE user — broadly, anyone using display screen equipment daily for continuous periods of an hour or more as a significant part of their work. That includes people at a fixed desk, mobile workers, home workers and hot-deskers.
The assessment is not optional and it is not a formality. Where an employee develops an upper limb disorder and no assessment exists, there is very little for an employer to argue with — a DSE assessment is usually the first document a solicitor asks for.
How to Carry One Out
STEP 1
Identify who is a user
Work out which of your people meet the definition, and remember that home and hybrid working changes it. Someone who was an occasional user in an office may be a full user working from a spare room four days a week, and will not have been reclassified unless someone thought to do it.
STEP 2
Assess each workstation
Go through the whole workstation, not just the screen — display, keyboard, mouse, software, chair, desk, document holder, footrest, lighting, glare, noise, temperature and the space around it. HSE’s free workstation checklist (CK1) is the standard tool and most organisations use it as the basis of a self-assessment.
STEP 3
Talk to the user
They know things the checklist will not surface. Whether they get eye strain by mid-afternoon, whether the chair has been broken for months, whether they have quietly stopped using the footrest because it slides. Ask directly about discomfort — people rarely volunteer it, because aches feel like a personal failing rather than an equipment problem.
STEP 4
Act on what you find
Reduce the risks to the lowest extent reasonably practicable. Most fixes are cheap — a chair adjustment, a screen riser, a separate keyboard and mouse for a laptop user. The expensive part is usually the delay, not the equipment.
STEP 5
Record and review
Keep the record simple and focused on the controls — what you found, what you did, who did it and when. Note the threshold: if you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, though HSE recommends it so you have something to review when circumstances change. At five or more employees, recording is required. Then review when something changes rather than on a calendar cycle.
A self-assessment questionnaire cannot assess itself
Sending out a checklist is a perfectly reasonable way to gather the information, and for straightforward cases it is the practical approach. But a competent person still has to read the responses, follow up what has been flagged and decide what action is warranted. A folder of completed questionnaires that nobody has looked at is collected information, not an assessment — and it will be read that way if it is ever tested.
What Good Posture Looks Like
HSE sets out a standard workstation arrangement. It is worth knowing the actual figures, because a great deal of the advice circulating online is wrong — and being too close to a screen causes the eye strain people are trying to avoid.
Screen
Top of the screen level with the eyes, about an arm’s length away. Directly in front, tilted so you are not craning. Positioned to avoid glare from windows and overhead lights.
Shoulders
Relaxed. Position yourself high enough that you do not need to shrug to reach the keyboard — shrugging all day is what produces the neck and shoulder pain.
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard just below elbow height, with space in front to rest the wrists. Mouse close by, so the arm is not reaching sideways all day.
Chair and feet
Lower back supported, feet flat on the floor or on a footrest. A small gap between the front of the seat and the back of the knees.
Dual screens are worth calling out separately, because they are now common and frequently set up badly. Put them close together side by side, angled slightly inwards in a shallow V, both about an arm’s length away. Swivel the chair to look between them rather than twisting the neck. If one screen is used more than the other, that one goes directly in front.
Laptops force a compromise: get the screen high enough and the keyboard is too high, get the keyboard right and you are looking down. Fine for an hour, poor for a working week. Where a laptop is someone’s main machine, a riser or docking station with a separate keyboard and mouse resolves it.
Breaks
The Regulations require work to be planned so users get breaks or changes of activity. HSE is explicit that the timing and length are not set down in law — they depend on the kind of work being done.
What HSE does say is that short frequent breaks are better than longer infrequent ones, offering 5 to 10 minutes every hour as preferable to 20 minutes every two hours. That is an illustration rather than a requirement, and treating it as a rule is how it ends up in policies as though it were law.
Two further points. Breaks should come before fatigue sets in rather than as recovery afterwards — no posture is good if it is held long enough. And ideally users should be able to choose when to take them, since they know when concentration is going. The break needs to be from the screen, not necessarily from work: standing for a phone call, a meeting or filing all count.
One exception worth knowing — employers are not responsible for providing breaks for the self-employed.
What the Assessment Should Pick Up
The recurring findings, in roughly the order you will meet them:
- Laptop used as a primary machine with no separate keyboard or riser
- Screen too low — the single most common cause of neck complaints
- Chair never adjusted from the day it arrived, or broken and unreported
- Glare from a window behind or beside the screen
- Mouse positioned out to the side, beyond the keyboard
- No footrest where one is needed, so feet dangle or the user perches forward
- Home setups at dining tables, with none of the above assessed at all
When to Review
There is no annual requirement in the Regulations, despite how often it is stated as one. Review when something changes:
- New equipment, a new desk, or a move to different premises
- A change in the way the workstation is used
- A change of role, or a shift between office and home working
- A user reporting pain or discomfort
Plenty of organisations also run a periodic review — every one or two years is common — as a backstop for drift nobody has reported. That is sensible practice. It is not the legal trigger, and an annual cycle that misses a desk move in March is weaker than a system that responds to change.
Who should carry it out?
Someone competent to do it — which for most organisations means one or two trained assessors reviewing self-assessments from everyone else. See DSE training courses, or a health and safety risk review if you would rather have the gaps found for you first.
Training
| If you need to… | Usual route |
|---|---|
| Carry out assessments | Assessing Display Screen Equipment, or DSE Assessor for organisation-wide responsibility. |
| Hold a recognised credential | CIEHF DSE Workstation Assessor, accredited by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. |
| Work through awkward cases | DSE Assessment Workshop — shared desks, dual screens, users already reporting symptoms. |
| Train everyone else | Awareness-level training for all users — see all DSE training courses. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a DSE assessment a legal requirement?
Yes. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to analyse workstations and assess the risks for anyone who is a DSE user, then reduce those risks to the lowest extent reasonably practicable.
How far should a screen be from your eyes?
About an arm’s length, with the top of the screen level with the eyes. Sitting too close is a common cause of eye strain, and some of the figures circulating online are far too short. If you can read the screen comfortably at arm’s length, that is the right distance; if you cannot, increase the text size rather than moving closer.
How often should a DSE assessment be done?
There is no fixed interval in law. The trigger is change — new equipment, a new desk or location, a change of role or working pattern, or a user reporting discomfort. Many organisations review every one to two years as internal policy, which is good practice but not the legal requirement.
Can employees assess their own workstations?
They can complete the checklist, and that is a practical way to gather the information — particularly for home workers. But a competent person needs to review the responses, follow up anything flagged and decide on action. Self-assessment gathers the data; it does not complete the assessment.
Do home workers need a DSE assessment?
Yes. The duty follows the user rather than the premises, so a DSE user working from home needs an assessment in the same way as one in an office — and home setups are typically worse, because nobody selected a dining chair for ergonomics.
What should the record contain?
HSE’s advice is that any record should be simple and focused on the controls. In practice: who the user is, what was assessed, what was found, what action was taken, by whom, and when. Employers with fewer than five employees are not required to write anything down, though it is worth doing so you have something to review later. A short record showing something changed is worth more than a long one showing only that a form was filled in.
Related Guidance
DSE training courses →
Risk assessment →
Musculoskeletal disorders →
Home working →
All guidance topics →
General guidance only, reviewed against HSE guidance INDG36, L26 and the workstation checklist CK1 in August 2026. Envico is an independent training intermediary and is not affiliated with the HSE.