New ISO 45001: transition from the BS OHSAS 18001 standard - RINA.org

New ISO 45001: transition from the BS OHSAS 18001 standard

26 Feb 2018

On March 12, 2018, the new health and safety management systems standard comes into force: find out how/when to adequate your certification

Organisations with BS OHSAS 18001 certification are granted a period of three years to make the transition to the new standard. The impact determined by the changes / innovations introduced by the ISO 45001 requirements depends on the degree of maturity and effectiveness of the current management system.

Gap analysis

The first step is to identify the real costs, in terms of time and resources, determined by the whole process of adaptation to the new requirements, so as to:

  • identify which aspects of the system need to be adapted
  • develop a specific implementation plan
  • provide training to the internal personnel, in order to guarantee an adequate knowledge / awareness
  • update the OHSAS management system and verify its effectiveness
  • contact the nearest RINA office to begin the transition process.

Transition steps and deadline

Certificates must be adequated to the new requirements within the next three years (deadline: September 2021). For this time period, the previous editions of the standard remain in effect.  

The client can do the transition activity along with the surveillance or the re-certification audit, or between two programmed audits. The transition audit is made up of two steps: off-site document review, during which the main change elements made by the organisation to its documental structure are analysed, and subsequent on-site audit to verify the effective application of the new requirements from ISO 45001.

Possible outcomes of the transition audit: 

  • Positive outcome: issuing a certificate of conformity to the new standard.
  • Negative outcome: if conformity to the previous edition of the standard remains, the organisation can maintain its old certification with an expiry date limited to the end of the transition period.

Find out more details, according to your current situation:

Implement your management system according to the requirements of the ISO 45001:2018 and request your first certification.

If you have a BS OHSAS 18001 certification issued under accreditation, you must first request the transfer of the certificate to RINA. You can request and transfer the certificate to ISO 45001 only at a later date (no later than September, 2021).

If you have already done the transition, and you have a certificate issued under accreditation in accordance with ISO 45001:2018, you can immediately request a transfer of the certificate.

If you have made all the changes to the system, you can ask for a transition audit in conjunction with the planned surveillance or recertification audit. This will in any case involve a preliminary document review and an increase in the total audit time (minimum 1 day / man).
For info and clarifications on costs and timing, you can refer to your usual contact in RINA.
We recommend that you implement the management system in accordance with the ISO 45001: 2018 requirements and undertake a new certification procedure, which is not subject to the transition deadline. Your certificate will last three years and you will not have to request the transition at a later time.

Davide Collareta


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ISO 22000:2018

Extension of migration period for OHS certificates (from BS OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001:2018)

As recently stated by IAF, transition period for migrating accredited certifications from OHSAS 18001:2007 to ISO 45001:2018 is extended to: 30 September 2021. For further information please refer to IAF website.

For only BS OHSAS 18001 certificates with ACCREDIA accreditation

The original deadline set out in ACCREDIA Circular of 22/03/2018 according to which starting from 12/03/2020 all OHS audits should have been conducted in conformity with ISO 45001:2018 has been postponed by 6 months.

It follows that it will be possible to conduct audit in accordance with BS OHSAS 18001:2007 only until 11/09/2020.

Starting from 12/09/2020 all OHS audits shall necessarily be conducted in accordance with ISO 45001:2018.

Did you know?

1

ISO 45001 IS THE EVOLUTION OF A SERIES OF STANDARDS DEDICATED TO HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK

2

IS BASED ON HIGH LEVEL STRUCTURE, INTRODUCED IN 2012 AND COMMON TO ISO MS STANDARDS

3

NEW CLAUSES AND NEW CONTENTS IN THE NEW STANDARD

4

THE MIGRATION PERIOD FOR CERTIFIED ORGANISATIONS IS 11 MARCH 2018 - SEPTEMBER 2021