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Industrialsafetytalk: Health and Safety Legislation
News Release from: BSI British Standards | Subject: BS 8800:2004
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 08 October 2004
Updated standard for H and S management
BSI has revised its British Standard for occupational health and safety management - BS 8800:2004 - to assist small to medium-sized enterprises with managing their risks.
As a result of recent major work-related accidents and legislation on occupational health and safety (OHandS), organisations with five or more employees must now carry out health and safety risk assessments BSI has revised its British Standard for OHandS management - BS 8800:2004 - to assist small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with managing their OHandS risks
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 16 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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If an organisation has five or more employees, it must carry out health and safety risk assessments and document the findings (as stated in The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999).
BS8800:2004 contains improved guidance on risk assessment and risk management which will help organisations to meet their legal obligations.
The revision of this British Standard also reflects national and international OHandS issues which have arisen since the publication of BS 8800:1996.
Written with the help of industry safety practitioners and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), this British Standard will help organisations develop a framework for managing OHandS so employees and others, whose health and safety might be affected by the organisations activities, are adequately protected.
The standard now contains twice as much essential information than before and will help reduce the risk to employees from injury.
The newly revised standard also contains new annexes giving guidance on promoting an effective OHandS management system, as well as information on hazardous event investigation.
Mike Low, a director at British Standards, says: "Following its update, BS 8800 will provide a number of key benefits to SMEs.
"Firstly it will help reduce risk to employees and others by developing good working practices to prevent accidents and work-related ill health.
"Business performance will improve through saved costs and better productivity and it will help create a positive and responsible reputation".
BS 8800: 2004 (ISBN 0 580 43987 9) is priced at GBP126 or GBP63 for BSI subscribing members.
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