OHSAS 18001 Health & Safety Management Standard

OHSAS 18001 has become one of the most widely recognised standard in the world. Last year the standard was adopted as a British Standard and can be formally assessed and certified.

What is OHSAS 18001?

18001 or more correctly BS OHSAS 18001:2007 (in the UK) is a registration scheme where an organisation's Health & Safety Management is assessed against a set of rules; if successful the organisation can use the logo to endorse the management system incorporated in the organisation. The logo along with the 'tick and Crown from UKAS' means that the company can demonstrate full compliance with the standard.

What does OHSAS 18001 cover?

The standard covers all elements of Health & Safety in the organisation and ensures that the Safety at Work legislation is fully implemented. With the ever increasing regulation and legislation it is important to have any internal systems validated. It may prevent inadvertent breaches of the Law and the prosecutions that may follow.
In short, all the health and safety activities normally carried out within a well ordered organisation.

Below is the BS OHSAS 18001 model which is designed to turn OH&S Policy, through planning and implementation into continual improvement of the Health & Safety system employed by the company.



The information gathered at every stage is fed to top management to allow for continual improvement. In this way the organisation is able to make decisions based on fact and so develop and evolve.
Many companies are opting for a fully integrated approach of Quality, Environmental and H&S in one management system.