Ian Richardson

For the past few years those concerned with managing occupational health and safety (OH&S) have been keenly awaiting the publication of ISO 45001 with any other related areas of standardization largely being put on hold. 

Now that ISO 45001 is here and early adopters are putting it into action, OH&S standards users are beginning to ask what else might be available to help them get the most out of their management systems and further improve OH&S performance. In the UK, work is already underway on the development of a series of short, simple guidance documents to support ISO 45001.

BS 45002-0 Occupational management systems – general guidelines for the application of ISO 45001, is published alongside the requirements standard and offers straightforward advice on how to implement it. This general document is going to be supported by a number of topic specific guides, giving users the chance to pick and choose which areas they want extra help with. 

The first two of these topic-based documents are currently out for public comment and the experts developing them are keen to get ordinary users’ views on whether they are meeting their objectives: to provide easily understood, practical help for non-experts tasked with OH&S management. 

BS 45002-1 Occupational health and safety management - Guidance on the management of occupational health addresses what is often the more neglected side of OH&S. It is notoriously difficult to manage worker health given both its complexity and the inevitable cross over of working and private life. This guidance aims to make users think about both sides – how work affects health and how health affects work – and gives a straightforward table of who to turn to when issues are beyond your own competence. 

BS 45002-3 Occupational health and safety management - Accident and incident investigation also deals with a topic which many organizations struggle with. Although the aim of management systems is to prevent incidents happening in the first place, the fact is that things do go wrong. Conducting effective investigations is crucial to prevent reoccurrence and this new standard will help non-specialists with how to go about that. Focusing on the need to discover and address the root cause of the problem and shifting from attributing blame to focusing on improvement, this guidance is aimed at all types of organizations, no matter how big or small. The commenting period closes on 28th May. 

Further national guidance is planned on risks and opportunities and topics such as worker participation, whilst internationally the ISO committee is currently debating which areas can usefully be subject to global standards. With topics such as performance indicators and psychosocial risk under discussion but nothing yet agreed, this is the perfect time for users to speak up and let the standardization bodies know exactly what they need.

If you would like to read and comment on BSI’s draft standards go to: https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/

Ian Richardson is board director, BSIF and standards publishing manager, BSI

Ian.Richardson@bsigroup.com