ohsas-18001-45001Back in 2013 we reported that OH&S 18001 is being updated/revised and was due to be published in 2015. The latest update that we have received has shown that this date will now be pushed back to early/mid 2016. There has been no specific reasons given for the delay, but typically this is due to the (many) stakeholders involved in revising the standard not agreeing with each of the proposed changes.

It has also been announced that the standard will be renamed to ISO 45001 (the name ISO 18001 has already been used for a totally different ISO subject).

To summarise last years article, OH&S 18001 is technically a British standard that the world has adopted, it is not officially an ISO standard. The changes that are currently under-way aim to:

  • update the standard as the last update/revision was 2007
  • bring the standard in-line with the new Annex SL  – read more about Annex SL here
  • make it an International standard rather than a UK standard
  • adopt the standard into the ISO team to help with technical updates

With the adoption of Annex SL, it means that the new (or updated) standard will follow the high-level structure with the following clause set-up:

  1. Scope
  2. Normative references
  3. Terms and definitions
  4. Context of the organisation
  5. Leadership
  6. Planning
  7. Support
  8. Operation
  9. Performance evaluation
  10. Improvement

In terms of time-scales, the (updated) development plan is as follows:

  • Committee draft to be published approx. May 2014 – known as ISO (CD) 45001
  • Draft international standard to be published approx. February 2015 – – known as ISO (DIS) 45001
  • Final draft international standard to be published approx March 2016 – known as ISO (FDIS) 45001
  • ISO 45001 to be published approx. October 2016 – known as ISO 45001 : 2016 (if all goes to plan!)

What do these changes mean to me?

It is still early days and a lot can change between now and the final version being published. Whether you are the health and safety manager or an auditor (or both), there will obviously be many changes that need to be made to your systems in order to meet the requirements of the revised standard, but until further information becomes available it is hard to say exactly what, although you will probably have 2 years from the final version being published to transition to the new standard (based on previous standards).

OH&S 18001 / ISO 45001 transition training

Don’t despair, Batalas will be running transition training courses nearer the time which will teach you everything you need to know about the new standard. We cannot give a date for this yet, but as soon as more info is available we will update this page.

Update June 2014 – to view the latest update click here