ISO 45001: Clause 6 – Planning for the OH&S System

ISO 45001: Clause 6 – Planning for the OH&S System

Clause 6 of ISO 45001 provides guidance on how to identify and assess the risks and opportunities associated with the organisation and its workers, and the actions necessary to deal with these risks and opportunities.

When planning for the OH&S management system, the organisation should take into account the following:

• The organization and its context (clause 4.1);
• The needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties (clause 4.2);
• The scope of the OH&S management system (clause 4.3).

Planning should be proportionate to the level of risk identified.

The overall purpose of the risk assessment process is to evaluate the hazards that arise or might arise in the course of the organisation’s activities and ensure that the risks to people arising from these hazards are assessed, prioritized and controlled to eliminate hazards or reduce risks to acceptable levels.

Hazard identification should aim to determine proactively all sources, situations or acts (or a combination of these), arising from an organization’s activities, with a potential for harm in terms of injury or ill health.

The organisation should have a process to determine and have access to health and safety legal requirements and other requirements applicable to its OHSMS, and to determine how these requirements apply to the OHSMS.

The organisation should ensure that specific plans are in place to:

• Address risks and opportunities that have been assessed as requiring further action;
• Address legal and other requirements;
• Prepare for and respond to emergency situations.

The organisation should establish objectives in order to maintain and improve the OH&S management system and to achieve continual improvement in its OH&S performance.

When determining its OH&S objectives the organisation must take into account:

• The results of the assessments of risk and opportunities;
• Applicable legal and other requirements;
• The results of consultation with workers and where applicable, their representatives.

OH&S objectives can be integrated with other business objectives such as quality or environment and should be set at relevant functions and levels as defined and decided upon by the organisation.

This has been submitted by our training partners Antaris