Protecting your staff from accidents and injury; protecting directors from fines and imprisonment

What is health and safety management?

Managing health and safety is about looking after your business, your staff and your reputation and interest in health and safety is real for a reason; some of the latest statistics taken from the HSE web site reveal:

•  133 workers killed at work

•  78,000 other injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR

•  1.2 million working people suffering from a work-related illness

•  28.2 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury

•  £14.2 billion the estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions

Robust health and safety management will help ensure you or your people don’t become a statistic.

What is a health and safety management system?

The ISO 45001 health and safety management system essentially asks a company to create a “book of best health and safety practice” to ensure safety for its staff any contractors and the public. In doing so the leadership team will move the company from basic practices and processes based on the law to more resilient systems and processes based on trust.

Gaining registration to the ISO 45001 standard allows you to demonstrate that your business manages health and safety management in accordance with both the law and best-practice.

The ISO 45001 standard provides a framework that asks a company to:

•  Identify and control the risks inherent in its activities;

•  Ensure the organisation conforms to current health and safety regulations and legislation; and

•  Commit to a process of continual health and safety improvement.

What are the benefits of ISO 45001?

There have been many studies into the benefits of effective health and safety management systems and the benefits are considered to be:

•  The implementation of controls to ensure legal compliance – ISO 45001 can help you to establish operational controls which take into account risks and opportunities, as well as legal and other requirements

•  Improved profit and efficiency – resulting from of fewer accidents and incidents and a correspondingly more productive workforce

•  Improvement in the management of health and safety risks – the standard helps you identify the hazards and risks associated with your activities; with a view to eliminating them or putting in place controls to minimise their effects

•  Increased health and safety awareness – an ISO 45001 management system will help to increase employee awareness of occupational health and safety, ensuring workers take an active role in health and safety matters

•  Enhanced reputation – Achieving certification to ISO 45001 provides independent recognition that you have achieved a prestigious and international benchmark

•  Improved legal compliance – ISO 45001 helps to improve your ability to respond to regulatory compliance issues, reducing the overall costs of incidents and downtime

Registration to a formal system also provides improved access to tender opportunities – many government and blue-chip organisations will restrict their contracts to only those that have ISO 45001.