BSI Case Study: Lerwick Port Authority

Certification: ISO 45001

Lerwick Port Authority has rapidly achieved
BSI certification to ISO 45001, making it aleader in health and safety“ISO 45001 has placed healthand safety at the heart of ourorganization, assisting with hazard
identification and risk management,
requiring continual improvement,exposing the business to external
audit, and improving senior
management and board oversight”
Stuart Wadley,
Health, Safety, Environment and Quality(HSEQ) Manager, Lerwick Port Authority

At a glance

Certification benefits

Lerwick Harbour is the principal
commercial port for the Shetland
Islands. With modern, versatilefacilities, it forms a key component
in the Islands’ economy. Lerwick
Port Authority is a Trust Port withstatutory responsibilities to manage,
maintain and regulate the harbour.
In 2018, the Authority achieved BSI
certification to ISO 45001 – thebest practice framework for an
occupational health and safety(OH&S) management system –demonstrating its commitment tohealth and safety and strengthening
the confidence of employees, portusers and other stakeholders in its
professionalism.

• Consistent, robust processes formanaging occupational healthand safety• Improved employee awarenessand engagement• A culture of continuous
improvement• Potentially fewer accidents andillnesses• Reassurance to employees,
harbour users and stakeholders• Rigorous approach to regulatorycompliance• Competitive differentiation andadvantage• Enhanced organizational
resilience and reputation

Certification: ISO 45001

Business backgroundfrom OHSAS 18001 or applying for the first time, ISO
45001 offers huge benefits by helping to provide asafe and healthy workplace, reducing work-related
injury and ill-health, and enhancing organizational
resilience,” he says.

He adds, “Consultation and participation havealways been part of the way we work, but there waspositive feedback from staff that this process has
been formalized, creating more willingness to comeforward unprompted with suggestions.”

Leadership commitment

BSI’s role

When Lerwick Port Authority’s certification journeybegan, in March 2018, senior management wasbehind it from the start – a vital factor in light of thestandard’s requirement for leadership commitment
to creating a strong health and safety culture.

Wadley says the Authority had “no hesitation” inusing BSI as its certification partner. “BSI provides
a very client-focused service, taking time to get toknow our business inside out, ensuring that ourcertification really is a true reflection of what we do.
Our experience of BSI had always been excellent,
and this was maintained by our BSI assessor for ISO
45001, who always added value by providing usefulfeedback.”

Lerwick Harbour is the most northerly commercial
harbour in the UK. The sheltered, deep-water port
operates around the clock in all weather conditions,handling over 5,000 vessels annually. With morethan 50 staff and turnover of over £10m a year,
Lerwick Port Authority maintains and develops anextensive port estate, providing harbour facilities
for the varied shipping in Shetland, from yachts andpleasure boats to ferries, fishing trawlers, cargovessels and cruise liners.

Why certification?
The health and safety of its employees and harbour
users is a priority for the Authority. As Stuart Wadley,
Health, Safety, Environment & Quality (HSEQ)Manager, explains, “Health and safety awareness isembedded into our way of working, and throughengagement – listening and recognizing when action
is required – we focus on doing the right things forthe right reasons.”
Wadley continues, “We already have BSI certification
to the quality and environmental management
standards ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Following anextensive overhaul of our OH&S system there was adesire from the board to complete the tripartite of
new standards, because adding ISO 45001 would
demonstrate our commitment to OH&S and givecustomers and stakeholders confidence in theAuthority.”
He adds, “There was also a realization that mostof the actions needed to achieve ISO 45001 werelegislative, regulatory or moral requirements, sowould have been carried out regardless of thestandard – and this made it a logical step to go forcertification, which required a systematic approach.”

ISO 45001: a game-changer
Published in March 2018, ISO 45001 is the firstglobal OH&S management system. Like its British
Standard predecessor, the long-established
BS OHSAS 18001, ISO 45001 lays out all therequirements for creating a successful OH&S
management system, underpinning a safe andhealthy workplace and compliance with the law, andenabling organizations to develop a robust system
to identify hazards, assess risks and take appropriate
mitigating measures.
The new standard places particular emphasis on riskbased thinking – requiring management to integrate
OH&S policy with organizational strategy – and on
the key themes of leadership, worker engagement
and consultation. Stephen Griffiths, BSI’s EMEA
Product Champion for OH&S, describes it as “agame-changer” for businesses. “Whether transitioning“Top management already had a good understandingof ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and going for ISO45001 was seen as an extension of that process,”says Wadley. “The HSEQ team also provided themwith information, clearly explaining that there was astrong emphasis on their need to fully engage withthe standard. We have a very supportive leadershipteam so this was already the norm.”
With senior management backing, the Authority
found implementation straightforward, based oninternal assessment of existing processes against
the requirements of ISO 45001, followed by BSI
assessment.
Like many organizations holding multiple standards,
it benefits from ISO 45001’s shared ‘high levelstructure’ with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, whichmeans the standards adopt consistent terms,
headings and format, making it quicker and easier
to manage all three. “We already had a frameworkin place from our other standards, so it was just acase of integrating the OH&S system into the overallmanagement system,” says Wadley.
“Our main challenge lay in fully understanding what
the standard required. My assistant and I dedicateda significant amount of time to this, reading online
articles and joining webinars. We then made smallchanges to our practices and additions to ourdocumentation to ensure compliance.”

Improved engagement
ISO 45001 looks at the issue of engagement in termsof organizational behaviour and company culture,
and at the effectiveness of internal communication,
which is measured to see if key OH&S messages
are getting across. It has led the Authority toensure it has a systematic process for consultationand participation with workers, “in particular via
departmental meetings, but also through staff
information notices, comment sheets, and face-toface discussions,” says Wadley. “All personnel areencouraged to provide feedback whenever they havesomething to share.”“Our longstanding relationship with BSI provides us
with continuity of awarding body, with auditors, sales
and support teams who have an in-depth knowledge
and understanding of our business,” he says. “And
we get ongoing reputational benefits from ourassociation with BSI’s respected brand.”Long-term benefits
While it is still early to weigh up all the benefits of ISO
45001, Wadley says achieving certification in undernine months “demonstrates our commitment tohealth and safety in the workplace to our customers
and stakeholders, and that we are meeting therequirements of our port users, particularly within theoffshore oil and gas industry.”
He continues, “Certainly, the enhanced system isaiding us with legal and regulatory compliance. It
has placed OH&S at the heart of the organization,
assisting with hazard identification and risk
management, requiring continual improvement,exposing the business to external audit, andimproving senior management and board oversight.”
Looking to the future, Lerwick Port Authority sees
BSI certification to ISO 45001 as an investment thatwill help sustain it for coming generations. “We’reconfident it will differentiate us from competitor
ports, strengthen our resilience, and enhance ourreputation,” concludes Wadley.

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BSI Case Study: Lerwick Port Authority