ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Consultancy

Health and safety is one area where a paper system is actively dangerous. A risk assessment that exists only to satisfy an auditor provides no protection on the shop floor or on site. Hillscom builds ISO 45001 systems that start from the hazards in your operations and the people who face them every day.

What ISO 45001 requires

The standard follows the same Harmonized Structure as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, which makes integration straightforward. Its distinctive requirements centre on a few key areas:

Worker consultation and participation. ISO 45001 goes further than most standards in requiring active involvement of workers at all levels, including in hazard identification, risk assessment, incident investigation and the setting of objectives. This is not a formality. Auditors will talk to people across the organisation to test whether participation happens in practice.

Leadership accountability. Top management must take overall responsibility for preventing work-related injury and ill health. Health and safety cannot be delegated entirely to a safety advisor.

Hazard identification and the hierarchy of controls. Hazards must be identified on an ongoing basis, including those from routine and non-routine activities, contractors, visitors and changes. Controls must follow the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineer, administer, then protect.

Management of change and contractors. Changes to processes, equipment, organisation or legislation must be assessed for health and safety impact before they happen, and contractor activities must be properly coordinated and controlled.

Legal compliance. Organisations must know which health and safety legislation applies to them and be able to demonstrate compliance, with regular evaluation.

A 2024 amendment also added climate change as a consideration in understanding context, in line with the other ISO management system standards.

How Hillscom supports ISO 45001

First-time certification. Implementation starts with a clear picture of your activities, locations and workforce, followed by hazard identification and risk assessment that reflect what happens in practice. From there the system is built out: consultation arrangements, legal register, objectives, operational controls, emergency preparedness, incident investigation, internal audit and management review.

Migrating from existing arrangements. Many organisations already have sound health and safety practice driven by legislation, but not structured as a management system. The work here is usually about organising and evidencing what already exists rather than starting again.

Strengthening an existing system. For certified organisations, a review can test whether consultation is effective, whether risk assessments reflect current operations, and whether incident learning leads to change.

Integration. ISO 45001 sits naturally alongside ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. An integrated management system combines the shared processes while keeping hazard control and worker participation distinct where they need to be.

Built around people, not paperwork

Hillscom brings experience from manufacturing, engineering, aerospace and defence environments where health and safety risk is present every day. The aim is always a system that people on the ground recognise as useful, because that is the system that keeps them safe.

Get in touch to discuss ISO 45001 certification.