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Standard

ISO 45001:2027 – Key Changes and Guidance

ISO 45001 is evolving to reflect modern work, stronger leadership and emerging risks, helping organizations protect people and build safer workplaces.

We’ll help you navigate the ISO 45001 revision with confidence, keeping health and safety at the heart of your organization.

The international standard for occupational health and safety management, ISO 45001, provides a structured framework to protect workers and embed health and safety into everyday business practice.

Now under revision, the standard is evolving to reflect modern work, emerging risks and the increasing diversity within workplaces. This requires an even greater emphasis on the role of leadership and the culture of the organization, ensuring the standard remains relevant in a changing world of work.

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Status of ISO 45001

What’s the status and timing of ISO 45001 changes?

ISO standards periodically undergo a structured revision process to ensure they provide you with the most relevant and up-to-date guidance.

Draft

Draft International Standard (DIS)

The revision of ISO 45001 is currently underway. Publication of the Draft International Standard (DIS) is expected soon.

Final Draft

Final Draft International Standard (FDIS)

The Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) of ISO 45001:2027 is expected towards the end of this year, ahead of publication of the revised standard.

New Standard

ISO 45001:2027 Publication

ISO 45001 is targeted to be published as a revised international standard in 2027. This will trigger a certification transition period.

Why the new ISO 45001:2027 standard matters to your organization?

Understand how ISO 45001:2027 strengthens leadership, addresses emerging risks and helps protect your people in a changing world of work.

Stronger leadership and culture requirements improve accountability and worker engagement.
New focus on mental health, wellbeing and psychosocial risks reflects modern work realities.
Improved alignment with ISO harmonized structure simplifies system integration.
Enhanced change management helps control risks from new technologies and work methods.
Considers diversity, disability and worker needs to improve inclusion and deliver controls for all.
Clearer governance integration embeds OH&S into strategic decision making.

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Preparing you for ISO 45001 changes

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Changes and Guidance

What are the changes to ISO 45001?

The ISO 45001 revision strengthens the standard to reflect modern work, emerging risks and the critical role of leadership and culture.

ISO 45001 is being revised to ensure it continues to reflect how work is changing and how organizations manage risk today.

The update strengthens leadership and organizational culture, reinforces the integration of occupational health and safety into strategy and governance and places greater emphasis on managing change. It puts emphasis on health and better reflects emerging risks, including psychosocial factors, new technologies and more diverse ways of working.

Improvements to clarity and alignment with other ISO management system standards will help organizations build more resilient, integrated and effective health and safety management systems.

Please note that the standard is still subject to change.
Under the updated Clause 4, organizations are required to explicitly consider factors such as climate change, modern ways of working and wider stakeholder expectations when defining their OH&S context.

It also strengthens expectations that this context actively informs governance, decision making and integrated management systems.
The revised Clause 5 places stronger expectations on top management to actively own OH&S outcomes and embed health and safety into governance and strategic decision making.

Leadership commitment must be visible in behaviours, culture and worker engagement - not just in policies or delegated responsibilities.
The updated Clause 6 places greater emphasis on proactive planning that reflects changing work practices, emerging risks and organizational change, rather than static risk registers.

The revision strengthens expectations around managing change, clarifying risks and opportunities and ensuring OH&S planning actively drives continual improvement and resilience.
The revised Clause 7 places stronger emphasis on ensuring OH&S systems are properly supported in practice, with clearer expectations around resources, competence, communication and access to reliable information.

The revision reflects a shift from assumed support to demonstrable capability, ensuring people, skills and communication arrangements genuinely enable safe and healthy work.
The update to Clause 8 strengthens expectations around operational control to reflect more complex, changing and distributed ways of working.

The revision places greater emphasis on managing change, controlling outsourced and contractor activities and addressing emerging operational risks - such as psychosocial factors and new technologies - ensuring controls remain effective in real world conditions.
The revision to Clause 9 places greater emphasis on meaningful evaluation of OH&S performance, moving beyond lagging indicators and compliance checks.

The revision strengthens expectations around monitoring wellbeing related risks, management review and the use of performance data to drive informed decisions and continual improvement, ensuring evaluation reflects real world health and safety outcomes.
The update to Clause 10 reinforces continual improvement as an active, data driven process rather than a reactive response to incidents.

The revision places stronger emphasis on learning from performance evaluation, incidents and worker feedback to drive systemic improvement, culture change and sustained OH&S effectiveness over time.

Insights & Media

Guidance to help you implement the changes and stay ahead

Get to grips with the ISO 45001:2027 changes and maximize the value of your management system with our expert transition guidance and support.

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