Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems

Legislation in the United Kingdom requires that employers have appropriate arrangements in place for the management and control of health and safety at work. In order to achieve these requirement employers need to have an effective occupational health and safety management system that it is clearly defined and well documented.

There are a number of occupational health and safety management systems which can be applied including the HSE Guidance Booklet HS(G)65 "Successful health and safety management", the British Standard BS 8800:2004 "Guide to Occupational health and safety management system", the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series OHSAS 18001 "Occupational health and safety management systems - Specification" and the International Labour Office ILO-OSH 2001 "Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems". Each of these management systems is based on the "plan-do-check-act" management model and embodies the principle of continual improvement as exemplified in the British Standard for quality assurance systems.