T-Mobile and BSI achieve a world first

Press release: 22 February 2007

Leading UK mobile phone company T-Mobile has teamed up with the BSI to achieve a unique world first.

The mobile telecommunications firm, which employs 7,000 staff in the UK, has become the first company ever to achieve PAS 99 certification for integrated management the recently published integrated management system requirements specification - itself the first product of its kind in the world.

The milestone was reached after T-Mobile successfully integrated its occupational health and safety management system and its environmental management system to create a single, unified, management system which met the requirements of PAS 99.

What is PAS 99?

Developed by BSI, PAS 99 is the first Publicly Available Specification of common management system requirements. It has been designed to help businesses by providing a framework for bringing different aspects of their organisation together to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy by avoiding duplication in such areas as internal audits, document control, training and administration.

“It’s always nice to be first, and this achievement demonstrates T-Mobile’s commitment and drive to improve everything we do,” said Nigel Wilkinson, head of T-Mobile’s Health, Safety and Environment department, based at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, which project-managed the process.

“Meeting the requirements of PAS 99 has enabled us to work in a more planned and systematic way and ensure that we have a more pro-active management system. It’s an independent endorsement for the way we run things from a highly reputable certification body. In our particular case we think it’s especially important because it demonstrates T-Mobile’s commitment to health, safety and the environment.”

T-Mobile was in an ideal position to become the first company to achieve PAS 99. It had already certified its Environmental management system with BSI to ISO 14001 and had then applied to BSI for certification of its occupational health and safety management system to OHSAS 18001.

“It made sound business sense for T-Mobile to go for PAS 99 certification as they underwent their health and safety assessment, saving them time and money,” explained Trevor Dodd, BSI’s Key Account Client Manager for T-Mobile.

“They were in a strong position to begin with, with common policies and procedures already in place in a number of key areas, so they were committed and open to the whole process and spotted the benefits very quickly.”

He also praised T-Mobiles internal communications system, where information is cascaded from the top down to trained health, safety and environmental ‘champions’ in every single department, who in turn raise any issues on behalf of staff.

David Kneller, BSI’s UK Product Manager said: “being the first organisation in the world to achieve Integrated Management registration to PAS 99 is a major achievement and one that any business would be proud of. Achieving this milestone within such a short timescale, is testimony to the commitment and significance that T-Mobile places on optimising the effectiveness of their business management system.