Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

18.3 
Major occupational health and 
safety management systems
There are three major occupational health and safety 
management systems that are in use globally. These are:
➤
HSG 65 which has been developed by the UK HSE 
and is described in Chapter 1.15. The syllabuses for 
both Certifi cate courses and the management chap-
ter headings in this text book have followed the elem -
ents of HSG 65
➤
OHSAS 18001 has been developed by the British 
Standards Institute from its Recommended occu-
pational health and safety management system BS 
8800. It has been developed in conjunction with the 
ISO 9000 series for quality management and the 
ISO 14000 series for environmental management
➤
ILO-OSH 2001 was developed by the International 
Labour Organization (ILO) after an extensive study of 
many occupational health and safety management 
systems used across the world. It was established 
as an international system following the publication 
of ‘Guidelines on occupational safety and health 
management systems’ in 2001. It is very similar to 
OHSAS 18001.
18.3.1
Basic elements of all health and safety 
management systems
All recognized occupational health and safety manage-
ment systems have some basic and common elements. 
These are:
➤
a planning phase
➤
a performance phase

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Introduction to Health and Safety at Work
406
➤
a performance assessment phase
➤
a performance improvement phase.
The planning phase
The planning phase always includes a 
policy statement
which outlines the health and safety aims, objectives and 
commitment of the