OHSAS 18001, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series, (officially BS OHSAS 18001) was a

British Standard for occupational health and safety management systems. Compliance with it enabled
organizations to demonstrate that they had a system in place for occupational health and safety. BSI
cancelled BS OHSAS 18001 to adopt ISO 45001 as BS ISO 45001. ISO 45001 was published in March 2018
by the International Organization for Standardization.[1] Organizations which are certified to BS OHSAS
18001 can migrate to ISO 45001 by March 2021 if they want to retain a recognized certification.[2]

Organizations worldwide recognize the need to control and improve health and safety performance and
do so with occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS). However, before 1999 there
was an increase of national standards and proprietary certification schemes to choose from. This caused
confusion and fragmentation in the market and undermined the credibility of individual schemes.

Recognising this deficit, an international collaboration called the Occupational Health and Safety
Assessment Series (OHSAS) Project Group was formed to create a single unified approach. The Group
comprised representatives from national standards bodies, academic bodies, accreditation bodies,
certification bodies and occupational safety and health institutions,[3] with the UK’s national standards
body, BSI Group, providing the secretariat.[4] Drawing on the best of existing standards and schemes, the
OHSAS Project Group published the OHSAS 18000 Series in 1999. The Series consisted of two
specifications: 18001 provided requirements for an OHS management system and 18002 gave
implementation guidelines.