ISO 18001 renewed for another year

We’re pleased to report that The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has renewed our compliance with ISO 18001, the standard for Occupational Health and Safety.

Compliance against the standard is measured via six-monthly surveillance visits, during which RoSPA audits our approach to health and safety management across the business.

This includes the leadership approach to health and safety along with our policies and stated ‘commitments’, and associated procedures.

For our health and safety management system to be recognised as ‘good’, we must meet a minimum set of criteria that include the types of policies we have in place, participation of and communication with employees, compliance with the relevant legislation and our schedule of risk assessments.

During each surveillance visit, RoSPA reviews the system in its entirety, before taking a more in-depth look at different elements. To meet the renewal criteria this time, we were required to demonstrate:

• Our plan for transition to BS 45001 (the new standard introduced in 2019)
• Our Health and Safety Policy Statement – including a commitment to workplace wellbeing and good health
• Risk assessments for: OSR, Working at Height, DSEAR, Radiation and mobile devices, Lone Worker devices and office physical security.
• Evidence of statutory training for Asbestos and Ladder use
• Records of Committee meetings, actions and continuous improvement
• Our Fleet policy and procedures – including discussion with Gary Dawson
• View of accidents, trend and analysis including RIDDOR reportable incidents
• Corporate and individual objectives for Health and Safety

The auditors also conducted an interview with Senior Area Operations Manager, Karl Jones, and accompanied surveyor, Thomas Kenny on a property inspection.

In 2020, we will be moving away from RoSPA, representatives from which have been extremely supportive during our health and safety journey. Instead, we will pursue BS 45001 with the British Standards Institute (BSi). Our stage one audit is scheduled for March 2020, with a second stage accreditation audit in June 2020.

Congratulations to Sarah Haigh, the Health and Safety team, and to everyone involved in ensuring we secured the standard for another year. A successful health and safety can only exist with the support of colleagues across the business and we thank you for your continued cooperation.