New global health & safety standard achieved

The new international standard, published in March 2018, replaces OHSAS 18001 and sets out the requirements for those organizations who wish to create and maintain a safe and healthy working environment for all.

Paul Brazier, Commercial Director at Morgan Lovell, said, “Health and safety remains our number one priority and we are fully committed to the new ISO 45001 standard. It fits with our strategy to use technology to encourage an open and empowered culture, enabling our staff, clients and supply chain to continually raise the health and safety bar.

“We are proud to have been on this journey with BSI and observe how the new ISO 45001 standard has improved our health and safety practices across our business.”

Alex Wood, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Manger at Morgan Lovell, who managed the ISO 45001 process, said: “We’re proud to gain this accreditation, which is in an elite category of businesses worldwide. This external certification accepts we have a proactive culture about health, safety and wellbeing, and continual improvement.
“This accreditation is a vital tool in our continued efforts to improve workplace health, safety and wellbeing. This new standard provides us with a framework to further improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions.”

OHSAS 18001 has already helped numerous organisations of all sizes successfully identify and manage occupational health and safety risks and hazards within their business. The new ISO international standard has been developed in order to take in to account today’s business requirements. It’s the first ISO for Occupational Health and Safety, so for those organizations which operate or trade internationally, working to a single international standard could help to simplify their business.

Whilst some of the requirements within OHSAS 18001 have been retained in the new standard, ISO 45001 uses a high level structure (HLS) - featuring terms, definitions, headings and text common to all management system standards - allowing easier integration when implementing multiple management systems. For example, ISO 9001 Quality Management and ISO 14001 Environmental Management. Some of the other changes include a strong emphasis on leadership, risk-based thinking as well as participation and consultation of decision-makers and workers to ensure the management system covers what is needed and is communicated effectively to all involved.

Organisations currently certified to OHSAS 18001 will have until March 2021 to migrate to the new standard.