Are You Delaying Your Transition from BS OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety?

3 Mar, 2020

Two years ago the eagerly anticipated ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System was released, making the BS OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety Management System obsolete.

If you’re currently operating under BS OHSAS 18001, you have until March 2021 to re-certificate to ISO 45001.  You may be tempted to put it off until as late as possible but why would you? The BS OHSAS 18001 has been replaced for a reason.

Why has BS OHSAS 18001 been withdrawn?

Every five to eight years the International Standards are reviewed by all the ISO member bodies who decide whether a Standard needs revising or withdrawing.  This consideration is based on feedback received and if a Standard is reviewed or withdrawn completely, it will be because it is now considered out of date.

ISO 45001 has seen significant improvements on BS OHSAS 18001 and is a universally recognised International Standard, compared to BS OHSAS 18001 which was a British Standard.  The overall aim is still to reduce risks and ensure the health and wellbeing of everyone involved within the business.  Although ISO 45001 can’t protect you legally, it will help you control the risks and improve your overall performance.

Transitioning may feel a little daunting but ISO 45001 is consistent with the high level structure of other Standards such as ISO 9001 Quality and ISO 14001 Environmental, making transitioning easy from the existing Management System.

If you want to understand the differences between the two standards as well as the benefits the new standard will bring to your business, our online training module ‘Introduction‘ will give you the answers and it’s completely FREE for 30 days.

How can ISO Quality Services help you transition?

Here at ISO Quality Services we use a keep it simple approach to Certification.  With our ISO Consultancy service, we can help you transition to ISO 45001 within around three months.

We will initially perform a GAP analysis on your business to identify differences between the old and new standards.  Our experienced auditor will provide you with a full document of recommendations to help develop your policies and documents in line with the new standards.  If you wish for further consultancy we can arrange additional visits to guide you through the process of implementing the recommendations and can produce a mini manual to document the migration.

We don’t have BS OHSAS 18001 but are interested in Certification, what can we do?

If you don’t currently have BS OHSAS 18001 but are interested in ISO 45001, then please visit our website or contact a member of our team on 0330 058 5551.

If you are interested in any other standards or training that we offer, please visit our websites: www.isoqsltd.com or www.isotrainingservicesltd.com.