The latest draft of ISO 45001, the new international standard for health and safety management systems, has been approved.
The second draft was subject to a ballot of 69 national standards bodies in May and June. The result was 88% for approval, with only 11% against. It would have taken 25% to trigger another rejection of the text. The ISO Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Project Committee will next meet between 18 to 23 September in Malacca to discuss a final draft.
However, IOSH head of policy Richard Jones has warned any further amendments to the standard could push publication of the final text into next year: “It's possible it may need a further meeting to complete this and if there are any technical changes, then the final draft international standard stage may also be required. This may mean that publication will be delayed until 2018. But the good news is the strong international support and that we know the standard will definitely be published – we just don’t know the date yet.”
Paul Reeve, head of business services at the Electrical Contractors' Association said it was good to see that stakeholders who had objected to the earlier draft had reached agreement on the latest text. “It's great news for those who want to integrate their management systems, but we should also bear in mind how the new standard, which is a fairly high expression of good to best management practice, will apply to smaller businesses.”