NOISE ASSESSMENT AT WORK - WORKPLACE NOISE SURVEYS
Noise assessments for all workplaces across the UK. Occupational noise testing for employee noise exposure levels to help companies comply with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005.
Reliable noise assessor with over 30 years of experience in workplace noise assessment.
Based in the Midlands, I carry out noise assessments throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
Daily average noise exposures ● Assessment of hearing protection ● Wearable and hand-held noise monitoring ● Institute of Acoustics certified ● NEBOSH Diploma ● Noise Regs compliant noise assessments ● Clear noise assessment reports with simple risk identification and control recommendations ● High quality Class 1 integrating and calibrated noise meters ● Clients from three employees to 1,600 people on a single site
If you are new to the world of noise assessments have a look through the Articles section for a lot of advice on noise assessment and managing a noise risk at work.
“Thank you again for our noise assessment report, it’s great. Really understandable and easy to follow”
Compliance Manager, Northampton, 2025
Noise assessment contents
All my noise assessments identify employee noise exposures (both averages and peaks) and assess hearing protection suitability, both current and potential alternatives. They also look at sources of noise and potential controls that could be used. The noise assessment looks at training and health surveillance needs.
Simple on the day
Point me at the area you want the noise survey to cover and I will assess the dB(A) and peak dB(C) levels, using whichever type of noise meter best suits. Noise measurements are made for as long as is needed to get a good result. From the client’s side, ensure key machines will be running or can be started to do a sample reading.
The noise assessment report
I do not take the approach of ‘pages of complex-looking data must be good’. Clients engage me to tell them what their risk is and what to do about it and clarity is key. All the data is there for those who want it, but for those who don’t there is a simple ‘your noise risks are this so make sure you are doing this’.
“I would just like to thank you for your time on site, and the professional manner in which the noise assessment was conducted. Your report also reflects this, I've found it very easy to read and from which to produce an action plan.” - MD of an engineering site, Newcastle
What is a noise assessment / noise survey?
A workplace noise assessment at heart is an assessment of the noise risk in the workplace - the noise levels to which employees are exposed. A noise assessment:
Gathers an understanding of who is exposed to what level of noise risk.
Whether that noise risks meets the legal limits set out in the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 or not.
If noise levels do meet the limits, the noise assessment identifies who needs things like hearing protection, noise safety training and hearing health surveillance.
The noise assessment assesses the hearing protection in use to make sure it is suitable for your noise risk and recommends alternatives if needed.
It will identify or confirm what is needed in terms of hearing protection zones in the workplace.
It will give you all the information needed for the noise risk assessment.
What is a noise assessment - a quick guide to what a noise assessment contains for employers.
“Thank you very much for the noise assessment report - it’s really helpful, we appreciate the thorough and straightforward nature of your report, everything looks very clear. Thanks again for your time and support. It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
HSE Manager, London, November 2025
Noise assessment quote
For a quick and straight-forward price for a noise assessment in your workplace, either email hello@thenoisechap.com, or complete the form below. The key information is where you are in the UK and an indication of how many people work in the high noise area. I will send a quote straight back giving a simple price and confirming all the noise assessment’s contents.
How the noise assessment process works
The noise assessment itself - the measuring noise part on the day
I will arrive on site, ask a few questions about things like training history, hearing protection policies, shift patterns, if you have any known hard-of-hearing employees, etc. then get on with measuring the noise levels.
That can include putting some wearable meters on the shoulders of some people, using long-term meters in certain static positions, and wandering around with a hand-held meter to get detailed noise measurements for various tasks.
If they have stereos on then it is OK to leave them on, the more ‘normal’ the day of the noise assessment is the better.
The one exception is non-running equipment where to get a measurement someone will need to fire it up for a quick measurement but that needn’t be a long process.
The approach in places like joinery or engineering workshops can be a little different as there is often no set working routine here, with different jobs being done each day. In places like this I need someone to quickly operate the tools which are not in use so I can get a noise reading from them.
The noise assessment report
You’ll then get a noise assessment report which I have honed over the years and am rather proud of.
It will tell you in nice and clear non-jargon plain-English what the noise issues are, if any, and what I recommend is done as any follow-up actions. It is written to cover what the HSE and employers need but in a way which I hope makes sense to a non-noise specialist. It opens with ‘this is your risk, now do this next’ and goes on from there.
If you have had the HSE in this will be exactly the information needed to help and covers off all the essentials like assessing the risk levels, confirming if the PPE is suitable for the noise, identifying precisely any training or hearing testing needs, etc.
“Thank you so much for all your help. I'd also just like to say that the report is extremely helpful from the point of view of someone who is not a noise expert so thank you for that!” - Workshop Manager, London, May 2025
Workplace noise assessment specialist - factory noise surveys anywhere in the UK
Superb value noise assessments
As I am just me there is no corporate office filled with overly expensive chairs clients are paying for, no hoards of shiny-suited sales reps, nothing to add extra fixed costs. That means I do noise assessments which are extremely high quality but at a very competitive cost as I don’t have the overheads of the corporates.
Noise assessments for HSE compliance.
My noise assessments cover the noise exposure levels, assessment of the hearing protection, advice on some noise reduction measures, and identifying any training or hearing testing (health surveillance) needs. If you’ve had a visit from the HSE, my noise assessment is what you need to help with compliance with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005.
My competence for noise assessment
Institute of Acoustics certified, NEBOSH Diploma, and over 30 years of experience in workplace noise assessment.
Also a member of the British Society of Audiology so have superb understanding of noise safety and the health impacts of noise.
“Thank you for the noise assessment report, very informative and very well put together”
Engineering site’s Managing Director, Wolverhampton, on a marvellous workplace noise assessment.
Noise assessments for any workplace, any industry, any size
Over 600 noise assessment clients, ranging from small companies to organisations like the NHS.
I have noise assessment clients from Inverness to Cornwall, Kent to Pembrokeshire, and everywhere between.
food industry ● joinery ● engineering ● packaging ● pharmaceuticals ● grounds-keeping ● vehicle maintenance ● shipping
motor industry ● foundries ● plastics ● hospitality ● recycling ● local councils ● retail ● windows and doors
agriculture ● entertainments ● warehousing and logistics ● furniture ● quarries ● colleges
Clients include small owner-operated businesses through to Tata, XPO Logistics, the NHS and the British Army.
“This noise report is fantastic, we will certainly be using you again in the future, a very knowledgable chap as well”
Training and SHE officer, Lincolnshire, May 2025
Noise assessments can sometimes save you money
As well as compliance with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and keeping the HSE and your insurer happy, occasionally a good noise assessment can save a significant amount of money in ongoing compliance costs:
A noise assessment for a new client who was also planning on getting over 200 hearing tests done every year as it ‘sounds noisy’ in their factory. The noise assessment showed the averages to be well below the 85 dB(A) limit so hearing tests were not needed, a saving of around £5k per year.
A client had used a phone app to look at their noise and several years ago started getting all 380 staff covered with hearing testing at a cost of nearly £10k a year. They asked for a proper noise assessment and it confirmed that of the 380 staff, they actually only needed to get hearing tests done for 14 of them. So from £10k to about £500, each year.
A client had measured their noise levels using a cheap noise meter but they had gone awry and recorded the highest noise levels seen rather than averages for the cycle. My noise assessment confirmed an absence of risk so no ongoing costs for hearing tests, mandatory PPE or regular noise assessments. The cheap meter saved maybe £200 on getting the noise assessment done initially but the costs of getting the results wrong more than swallowed that saving and a lot more besides.
A client in a new factory was concerned to know if they had a noise risk. I did a full noise assessment for them and the results were that noise levels are low and nothing else was needed. The noise assessment confirmed the absence of noise risk which also confirmed a saving of around £4,000 a year for health surveillance, along with the costs of hearing protection.
Want to know more about industrial noise assessments or workplace noise surveys?
How often should you repeat a noise assessment?
Noise assessment isn’t a one-shot process and you do need to repeat them every so often, but that doesn’t always mean getting someone like me in every time. As much as my bank balance would thank you, you can do reviews in-house and then get a new assessment done from scratch less frequently.
For the in-house review, have a look around and has anything changed? New equipment, machines moved around, shift lengths changed, etc.? If the answer is no then you are done. Document that you did it.
The less frequent repeat is something I would advise roughly every three years which will catch things like small unnoticed changes to a motor here and there, etc. This is my recommendation and no matter what other consultants tell you, there is no law about when you must redo the whole thing from scratch.
8 hour exposure limits and the time needed to do a noise assessment
The limits in the Noise Regs relate to eight hour daily average exposures but that doesn’t mean a noise assessment has to be over eight hours. If someone works on a machine which has a cycle of anything from a minute to half an hour, once you have measured the noise for a few cycles you will have a level for it. From that point on it doesn’t matter how long you measure for, the result is exactly the same.
What also matters is how many noise meters are being used. I have 15 so in three hours of assessment I am doing the equivalent of 45 hours of measuring. The time on site is not related to the number or accuracy of measurements. What I don’t do is pad out the time to make the invoice bigger.
Read more on dealing with eight hour averages and how long a noise assessment should take
What are the obligations for employers for getting a noise assessment done and then managing noise risks?
If there is reason to think noise levels may be approaching 80 dB(A), then they need to arrange a noise assessment to confirm the actual noise levels present.
If the noise assessment gives levels of 80 to 84 dB(A) then all employees need to have noise safety training and hearing protection has to be available, but employees can choose whether to wear it or not.
If the noise assessment shows levels are 85 dB(A) or over then everything else applies, so the training element along with mandatory hearing protection and mandatory hearing testing. Employers also have to reduce noise levels as much as is reasonable or possible to do so.
Read more on the legal requirements for managing noise at work
Noise assessment vs noise risk assessment - what’s the difference?
A noise assessment is what an employer needs to do if there is reason to think noise levels may be averaging over 80 dB(A) in all or part of the workplace. That is an average for the shift by the way, not individual instances.
The noise assessment works out what the daily noise exposure is likely to be for people, and as all hearing protection is different it assesses if the hearing protection is OK for the specific noise risk. It also looks at who needs noise training and things like hearing testing.
A noise risk assessment is a very simple document referencing that, and also things like the in-house policies for issuing and controlling PPE, who manages the hearing testing programme, etc.
Featured articles about noise assessment and managing noise risk at work.
See the Articles page for loads more advice on noise assessments and managing noise risks at work, everything from noise assessments to light-up noise safety signs, what health surveillance is and how to manage it, through to choosing the right hearing protection.
If you are looking for general noise safety information as part of a noise training programme, there is a noise safety training video here which may help, covering all the highlights (if you can call it that) of noise safety at work.
“Thank you for all the noise safety information provided in the noise assessment and arranging it for us. Would just like to say I really appreciate all the knowledge you have shared with me as the guidance alongside the results really helped. This is a pretty new process for our site due to the recent introduction of new machinery and I have found the noise side of it very interesting. I will be sure to highly recommend your company to our sister site in England”. - H&S Manager, Irvine, Scotland