ISO 45001: Health and Safety

Are You and Your People Safe and Healthy?

What is ISO 45001?

ISO 45001 is an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It provides a framework for organizations to establish, implement, maintain, and improve their occupational health and safety practices to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities, and to promote a safe and healthy work environment.

The primary goal of ISO 45001 is to help organizations create a safe and healthy workplace by identifying and controlling health and safety risks, complying with legal and regulatory requirements, and continually improving their occupational health and safety performance.

Key elements of ISO 45001 include:

  • Context of the Organization:
  • Understanding the internal and external factors that can affect the organization’s occupational health and safety management system, including the needs and expectations of interested parties.
  • Leadership and Worker Participation:
  • Demonstrating leadership commitment to occupational health and safety, establishing clear roles and responsibilities, and involving workers in decision-making processes related to health and safety.
  • Planning:
  • Identifying hazards, assessing risks, and determining appropriate controls to eliminate or minimize occupational health and safety risks to workers and other relevant interested parties.
  • Support:
  • Providing the necessary resources, training, communication, and consultation to support the effective implementation of the occupational health and safety management system.
  • Operation:
  • Implementing and maintaining procedures and controls to manage occupational health and safety risks, including emergency preparedness and response procedures.
  • Performance Evaluation:
  • Monitoring, measuring, and evaluating the effectiveness of the occupational health and safety management system, including performance indicators and incident investigation and reporting.
  • Improvement:
  • Continually improving the occupational health and safety management system based on performance monitoring and evaluation, management review, and feedback from workers and other relevant interested parties.

ISO 45001 certification involves a third-party audit to assess whether an organization’s occupational health and safety management system conforms to the requirements of the standard. Certification demonstrates to stakeholders, including workers, customers, regulators, and the public, that the organization is committed to ensuring a safe and healthy workplace and managing occupational health and safety risks effectively.

Why ISO 45001 Matters for Your Business:

ISO 45001 holds crucial importance for your business, providing a framework for implementing an effective Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS). Here’s why it’s indispensable:

Employee Well-being and Safety:

Emphasizes the health, safety, and well-being of employees, showcasing commitment to a safe work environment, reduction of workplace accidents, and protection of physical and mental well-being.

Compliance with Legal Requirements:

Assists in meeting stringent legal and regulatory requirements related to occupational health and safety. Ensures a systematic approach to identifying and complying with laws, reducing the risk of penalties and legal issues.

Reduced Accidents and Incidents:

Focuses on proactive hazard identification, risk assessment, and risk control measures. Systematically identifies potential hazards, assesses risks, and implements preventive measures to reduce accidents, incidents, and occupational illnesses.

Improved Productivity and Efficiency:

Promotes a culture of safety, positively impacting employee morale, motivation, and productivity. Encourages employee involvement in health and safety initiatives, leading to increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, improved retention, and overall efficiency.

Enhanced Reputation and Stakeholder Trust:

Certification demonstrates commitment to a safe workplace, enhancing reputation among stakeholders. Prioritizing occupational health and safety builds trust, credibility, and a positive brand image, leading to increased customer loyalty and a competitive advantage.

Risk Management and Continuous Improvement:

Promotes a systematic approach to identifying, assessing, and managing occupational health and safety risks. Establishes processes for ongoing risk management, monitoring, and improvement, helping identify areas for enhancement and continuously improve health and safety performance.

Supplier and Contractor Management:

Encourages criteria for selecting, evaluating, and monitoring suppliers and contractors based on their OH&S performance. Ensures partnerships with entities committed to safety, reducing risks associated with external parties and strengthening the overall supply chain.

Implementation of ISO 45001 brings benefits such as improved employee safety, legal compliance, reduced accidents, increased productivity, enhanced reputation, effective risk management, and continuous improvement. This structured approach enables businesses to create a safe work environment, protect employees, and thrive sustainably.

The philosophy behind ISO 45001: Empowering Your Business through OHS Excellence

If you are considering attaining Cyber Essentials  or Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and want a pre-assessment evaluation to identify any areas where you might fail, then AEC can conduct a Readiness Assessment complete with a report advising on any areas where you need to make improvements, or changes, to pass the Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification/audit.

Working in partnership with our Certification Body we can conduct the audit and award the certificate if you meet all the criteria. One of our Cyber Assessors will link to you remotely to conduct an audit against the criteria specified for Cyber Essentials Plus.

AEC can provide additional support and guidance to identify any changes required for your environment to mitigate any problems with the  security posture that could cause any non-compliance or impact a successful certification. We also can provide additional ongoing guidance throughout the Cyber Essentials Certification process.

In order to get a fixed price proposal please complete the following Cyber Security Consultancy Next Steps and select Cyber Essentials Fixed Price Proposal

Notes about Cyber Essentials Plus Service Options 

  • The cost of a Cyber Essentials PLUS assessment will depend on the size and complexity of your network and devices.
  • Re-testing timescales are based on the NCSC guidelines.
  • You will need to complete your Cyber Essentials PLUS audit within 3 months of your last Cyber Essentials basic certification 

Legacy Operating Systems and Applications

Unsupported operating systems will not meet Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essential Plus certification and organisations often feel pressured to upgrade their systems, which could mean significantly increased costs and having to re-engineer applications to run on new platforms.

If you are developing, or have developed your own applications, you need to be able to deploy safely and securely and meet the requirements of Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, this is where our Legacy Application Security solution from Droplet will enable you to meet the requirements without the additional burden and overhead of re-platforming your legacy applications and operating systems.

What Are the Benefits of Cyber Essentials? 

Most companies rely on digital offerings and services as part of their day to day business, but where there is information technology there is an element of information security risk. These organisations will at some time come under some form of threat from cyber criminals. This self-assessment and audited Cyber Essentials option will give you protection against a wide variety of the most common cyber-attacks.

Your Cyber Essentials certification will:

  • Reassure customers that you are working to secure your IT against cyber attack.
  • Attract new business with the assurance you have cyber security measures in place.
  • Give you a clear picture of your organisation’s cyber security level.
  • Present more business opportunities since some Government contracts require Cyber Essentials certification.
  • Reduce the risk of your organisation becoming a victim of a cyberattack.
  • Show your customers that you care about the security of their information and help you win their trust

Cyber Essentials technical requirements updated for April 2023

In April 2023, the NCSC and its Cyber Essentials delivery partner IASME will update the technical requirements for Cyber Essentials. This update is part of a regular review of the scheme’s technical controls, ensuring that it continues to help UK organisations guard against the most common cyber threats.

After a major update last year – the biggest update to the scheme since it was first set up in 2014 – the 2023 update will be lighter touch, providing a number of clarifications, alongside some important new guidance. This includes:

User devices.

With the exception of network devices (such as firewalls and routers), all user devices declared within the scope of the certification only require the make and operating system to be listed. We have removed the requirement for the applicant to list the model of the device. This change will be reflected in the self-assessment question set, rather than the requirements document.

Clarification on firmware.

All firmware is currently included in the definition of ‘software’, and so must be kept up to date and supported. Following feedback that this information can be difficult to find, we are changing this to include just router and firewall firmware.

Third party devices.

More information and a new table that clarify how third-party devices, such as contractor or student devices, should be treated in your application.

Device unlocking.

They have made a change there to mitigate some issues around default settings in devices being unconfigurable (such as the number of unsuccessful login attempts before the device is locked). Where that is the case, it’s now acceptable for applicants to use those default settings.

Malware protection.

Anti-malware software will no longer need to be signature based and they have clarified which mechanism is suitable for different types of devices. Sandboxing is removed as an option.

Zero Trust

New guidance on zero trust architecture for achieving CE and a note on the importance of asset management.

Style and language.

Several language and format changes have been made to make the document easier to read.

Structure updated.

The technical controls have been reordered to align with the updated self-assessment question set.

Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus Testing.

The CE+ Illustrative Test Specification document has been updated to align with the requirements changes. The biggest change there is a refreshed set of Malware Protection tests, to simplify the process for both applicants and assessors.

All these changes are based on feedback from assessors and applicants, and have been made in consultation with technical experts from the NCSC. As well as the updated requirements and new question set, IASME are also providing more guidance documents to help applicants during the certification process. This includes articles to help applicants understand the questions, as well as access to a dedicated knowledge base.

This latest update (version 3.1) will take effect from 24 April 2023. This means all applications started on or after this date will use the new requirements and question set.

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