Occupational Health and Safety Audit

Health and safety audits are highly recommended tools by multiple organisational and safety
management systems as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of health and safety management
systems. The HSE Guidelines for Best Practice define a health and safety audit as: “the collection of
independent information on the efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of the total health and safety
management system and drawing up plans for corrective action.”

OHSAS 18001 is a British Standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It was
created to help organisations demonstrate good occupational health and safety performance and as
a result is now seen as one of the world’s most recognisable occupational health and safety
management systems standards. OHSAS 18001 defines an audit as: “the systematic examination to
determine whether activities and related results conform to planned arrangements and whether
these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable for achieving the organisation’s
policy and objectives.”

OHSAS 18001 has been replaced by ISO 45001 the new international standard for occupational
health and safety management.

 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends programme

evaluation and improvement as core elements of the recommended practices for safety and
health (Compliance Guidelines and Recommendations for Process Safety Management
(Nonmandatory). https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?
p_id=9763&p_table=STANDARDS

 OSHA Compliance Audits. Employers need to select a trained individual or assemble a

trained team of people to audit the process safety management system and program.

 The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Occupational Safety and Health 2001 Guidelines
highly recommend the use of audits as part of the evaluation of the OHS management
system.

 The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance document HSG65 "Successful Health and Safety
Management" recommends that audits are undertaken to review performance of the health
and safety management system as part of the PDCA model (Plan, Do, Check and Act).

 The new ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety standard requires organisations to have
a structure in place for management review as part of performance evaluation of the health
and safety management system.

As recommended by the ILO guidelines, an audit of an OHS management system will address areas
such as:
 Policy

– Occupational safety and health policy

– Worker participation

 Organizing

– Responsibility and accountability

– Competence and training

 – Occupational safety and health management system documentation

– Communication

 Planning and implementation

– System planning, development and implementation

– Occupational safety and health objectives

– Hazard prevention

– Prevention and control measures

– Management of change

– Emergency prevention, preparedness and response

– Procurement

– Contracting

 Evaluation

– Performance monitoring and measurement

– Investigation of work-related injuries, ill health, diseases and incidents, and their
impact on

 Safety and health performance

– Audit

– Management review

 Action for improvement

– Preventive and corrective action

– Continual improvement

References

 ILO https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---
safework/documents/publication/wcms_214128.pdf

 HSE https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg65.htm

 ISO https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100427.pdf

 British Standards Institute https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/ohsas-18001-occupational-

health-and-safety/

 OSHA https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA3885.pdf &

https://www.osha.gov/safety-management/program-evaluation

 Health and Safety Authority – Ireland Auditing a Safety and Health Management System
https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/Occupational_Health/Auditin
g_Healthcare.pdf