OHSAS 18001

The occupational Health & Safety assessment series (OHSAS) of guidelines were developed to meet a growing need for a recognisable health and safety management system standard.

Developed to be compatible with ISO9001 and ISO14001 it is the current leading specification worldwide in this area.

There are many drivers for an organisation to implement OHSAS 18001, including client demand but others include:

Reputation – many companies understand Health & Safety is just one area where their activities are scrutinised by the public and customers and wish to demonstrate they are adopting best practice.

Legislation – 18001 allows companies to demonstrate they are meeting the current health & Safety requirements in structured and auditable way.

Insurance – some industries require members and organisations to apply the principles of OHSAS 18001 and in many cases this gives a discount on insurance premiums. (in many cases this means the implementation costs often pay for themselves in reduced payments)

Litigation – an independently audited and certificated system allows a much greater chance of success when challenging civil litigation issues.

Overall, though by implementing OHSAS 18001 as part of an integrated management system and organisation not only demonstrates to its clients it treat Health and Safety importantly but shows its people that it cares for them in their work environment.

There are many commonalities with ISO9001 and ISO14001 and implementing them together often provides significant economies of scale and operation of the overall management system.

The key elements of OHSAS 18001 are

Ley hill solutions can assist your organisation to implement an Occupational Health & Safety system based on OHSAS 18001 and integrate it with your existing management systems if you have them in place already.

As with all of our work to implement standards ley hill solutions is not a certification body and therefore we will provide you with support and guidance as to the most suitable approach to gain certification. We will only recommend certification bodies accredited by UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) www.ukas.com or IAF (International Accreditation Forum) members.

OHSAS 18001 can be adopted by any organization wishing to implement a formal procedure to reduce the risks associated with health and safety in the workplace for their employees, customers and the general public if they have access to their premises.