The ballot period for the second Draft International Standard (DIS2) of ISO 45001, the voluntary standard for occupational health and safety (OH&S) management systems, closed on 13 July. In a post on LinkedIn, ISO Technical Programme Manager, Mr José Alcorta, has confirmed: “The second public enquiry draft (DIS) has just been approved. The document has received a very high level of endorsement by ISO members and gets one step closer to its publication.”
Although few details have been published so far on the content of the standard, ISO 45001 will take into consideration the requirements of existing standards, including OHSAS 18001, the ILO-OSH Guidelines, as well as numerous other national and international standards. We also know that it will incorporate the new High Level Structure, common to all new ISO standards, which will place an increased emphasis on the organisation’s context, risk management, and the role of top management. Publication of the standard is likely to be in early 2018.
As a member of ISO/PC 283 – the project committee responsible for developing the standard, Steve Williams, System and Governance Manager at LRQA, added; “Following the positive vote, ISO/DIS2 45001 will move onto the next stage of its development. The comments received on the DIS2 will be reviewed by the committee at their next meeting in September in Malacca, Malaysia. This is a great step forward in the development of an international occupational health and safety management system standard, which will help protect workers around the world.”
With all the major ISO standards being revised, LRQA is at the forefront of communicating the changes. We offer a range of assessment services as well public and in-house training courses, all aimed at helping to ensure that organisations worldwide have a smooth transition to the new standards.
Please note that as of January 2018, we have moved to the LRQA brand and retired the LRQA name.
You can find out more about the development of ISO 45001 on the ISO website.