OHSAS 18001 was developed in response to industry demand for a recognizable health and safety management system standard which can be externally assessed and certified.

However, OHSAS 18001 is changing to become ISO 45001.  The overall aim of ISO 45001 is the same as OHSAS18001. It is being produced to align the range of national health and safety management system standards into one standard with the intention of ruling-out confusion and market fragmentation.

Benefits of OHSAS 18001

• Protecting your people – a structured approach to hazard identification and risk management which can contribute to the provision of a healthier and safer working environment and the avoidance of a high proportion of accidents and occupational health problems. This should help reduce lost time through employee illness and injury which in turn can lead to improved staff morale.
• Minimizing risk – the management of health and safety becoming more transparent and effective by translating the outputs of risk assessment, audits, inspections, legal reviews and incident investigations into action plans to minimize the risk of accidents.
• Legislation – provides a means for identifying existing legislation and other relevant requirements helping you stay within the law. This in turn can lead to potential reductions in liability claims and lower insurance premiums.
• Stakeholder confidence – increased credibility from having an OHS management system independently assessed
• Management system-based – the ‘plan do check act’ basis of this standard is in common with other management system standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, meaning it is easier to develop an integrated system.