Specification for Occupational Health and Safety management systems

For some time there has been urgent customer demand for a recognisable occupational health and safety management system specification, for the assessment and certification of OH&S management systems.

However, there has been insufficient agreement within the formal standards development processes for the development of a UK national standard, a European standard, or an international standard, in this area (although agreement was eventually reached over the development of BS 8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems).

This was the first national standard of its kind to be published and was created to provide to help organisations apply the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992.

This has led to the development of a number of OH&S management systems specifications, both by national standards bodies (other than BSI) and by independent groups. This has lead understandably to a degree of confusion in the marketplace, which does little to help organisations to establish credibility for their certified management systems.

BSI, in association with other national standards bodies, certification bodies, and specialist consultancies, has since decided to try and meet this increasingly urgent demand, and to try to remove confusion in the workplace from the proliferation of certifiable OH&S. specifications. This has resulted in the development of this Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Specification, OHSAS 18001. The participants are listed below, as are the various proprietary certification schemes which were used to create the specification.
* National Standards Authority of Ireland
* Standards Australia
* South African Bureau of Standards
* British Standards Institution
* Bureau Veritas Quality International
* Det Norske Veritas
* Lloyds Register Quality Assurance
* National Quality Assurance
* SFS Certification
* SGS Yarsley International Certification Services
* Asociaci?spa? de Normalizaci? Certificaci?r /> * International Safety Management Organisation Ltd
* Standards and Industry Research Institute of Malaysia-Quality Assurance Services
* International Certification Services

The following documents were used in the creation of the specification:
* BS8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems
* Technical Report NPR 5001: 1997 Guide to an occupational health and safety management system
* SGS & ISMOL ISA 2000:1997 Requirements for Safety and Health Management Systems
* BVQI SafetyCert: Occupational Safety and Health Management Standard
* DNV Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS):1997
* Draft NSAI SR 320 Recommendation for an Occupational Health and Safety (OH and S) Management System
* Draft AS/NZ 4801 Occupational health and safety management systems Specification with guidance for use
* Draft BSI PAS 088 Occupational health and safety management systems
* UNE 81900 series of pre-standards on the Prevention of occupational risks
* Draft LRQA SMS 8800 Health & safety management systems assessment criteria

OHSAS 18001 will supersede some of these referenced documents. OHSAS 18001 maintains a high level of compatibility with, and technical equivalence to:
* AS/NZ 4801
* UNE 81900


The truly International flavour for the specification can be seen from the number of International organisations involved in its creation. Significantly, the certification bodies involved hold about 80% of the world market for management system certification.

It is stressed that OHSAS 18001 is not a UK national standard. OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO 9001:1994 (Quality) and ISO 14001:1996 (Environmental) management systems standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems by organizations, should they wish to do so.

The (OHSAS) specification gives requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, to enable an organisation to control its OH&S risks and improve its performance. It does not state specific OH&S performance criteria, nor does it give detailed specifications for the design of a management system.

The OHSAS specification is applicable to any organisation that wishes to:
* Establish an OH&S management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees and other interested parties who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities
* Implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system
* Assure itself of its conformance with its stated OH&S policy
* Demonstrate such conformance to others
* Seek certification/registration of its OH&S management system by an external organisation
* Make a self-determination and declaration of conformance with this OHSAS specification.

OHSAS 18001 has not been developed through the formal standards development process. Instead, it has been developed by a process that is open to other sponsors wishing to produce similar types of documents in association with BSI, provided that those sponsors are willing to comply with BSI's conditions for such documents.

An accompanying publication, OHSAS 18002 Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001, is also under development and will be published shortly.

OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO 9001:1994 (Quality) and ISO 14001:1996 (Environmental) management systems standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems by organisations, should they wish to do so.

It is hoped that the application of OHSAS 18001 may provide useful data for the future development of either a UK national OH&S management systems specification standard, or for an international standard. 

CONTACT BSI PRESS OFFICE:
Wilma Tulloch on +44 (0)20 8996 6330 OR
Marc Edney on +44 (0)20 8996 6330