GB/T 43500-2023Safety management systems - Requirements (English PDF)

1 Scope

The document establishes the overall principles and the requirements for setting up, implementing, maintaining and continually improving a safety management system, and gives an overall and generic method.

The document applies to: organizations of every type and size that intend to set up, implement, maintain and improve a safety management system; the fields of work safety, community safety, functional zone safety, public place safety, campus safety, traffic safety and fire safety, and disaster prevention and mitigation; and the whole life cycle of an organization, being applicable to any activity at any level, internal or external.

Note: where no confusion arises, the standardization document referred to in this document is called simply the document.

2 Normative references

The document has no normative references.

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 organization: person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its objectives. Note: the concept of organization includes, but is not limited to, enterprises and public institutions, government bodies, associations and individual businesses, or part or a combination of the above, whether incorporated or not, public or private. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.1.

3.2 interested party: individual or organization that can affect a decision or activity, be affected by a decision or activity, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision or activity. Example: interested parties can include customers, visitors, residents, communities, suppliers, regulators, non-governmental organizations, investors and staff. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.2.

3.3 staff: person performing work or work related activities under the control of the organization. Note 1: persons perform work or work related activities under various arrangements, paid or unpaid, such as regularly or temporarily, intermittently or seasonally, occasionally or part-time. Note 2: staff include top management and managerial and non-managerial persons. Note 3: depending on the context of the organization, the work or work related activities performed under its control may be carried out by persons employed by the organization, by persons of external providers, by contractors, by individuals, by persons seconded from outside, and by other persons where the work or work related activities are to a certain degree under the shared control of the organization.

3.4 requirement: need or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatory. Note 1: generally implied means that it is customary or common practice for the organization and interested parties that the need or expectation under consideration is implied. Note 2: a specified requirement is one that is stated, for example in documented information. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.8.

3.5 legal requirements and other requirements: legal requirements that the organization has to comply with and other requirements that the organization has to or chooses to comply with. Note 1: for the purposes of this document, legal requirements and other requirements are those relevant to the safety management system. Note 2: legal requirements and other requirements include the provisions of collective agreements, for example the standards of the organization and of its sector, contractual provisions, and agreements with communities or non-governmental organizations. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.9.

3.6 management system: set of interrelated or interacting elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives, and processes to achieve those objectives. Note 1: a management system can address a single discipline or several disciplines. Note 2: the system elements include the structure, roles and responsibilities, planning, operation, performance evaluation and improvement of the organization. Note 3: the scope of a management system can include the whole organization, specific and identified functions or departments of the organization, or one or more functions across a group of organizations. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.10.

3.7 safety management system: management system, or part of a management system, used to establish and achieve the safety policy and the objectives.

3.8 top management: person or group of people who directs and controls an organization at the highest level. Note 1: top management has the power to delegate authority and provide resources within the organization, provided that it retains ultimate responsibility for the safety management system. Note 2: if the scope of the management system covers only part of an organization, then top management refers to those who direct and control that part. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.12.

3.9 leadership: ability to establish strategic policies and objectives, to establish a management system, and to apply human, material and financial resources so as to ensure effective implementation and to achieve the objectives.

3.10 policy: intentions and direction of an organization as formally expressed by its top management. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.14.

3.11 safety policy: safety purpose issued by the top management of the organization, embodying its internal safety pursuit and code of conduct as well as its external safety commitment. Note: the safety policy is a statement of the overall intention and direction of an organization to prevent injury, damage to health, loss of property and damage to the environment, and to provide a healthy and safe environment.

3.12 objective: result to be achieved. Note 1: an objective can be strategic, tactical or operational. Note 2: objectives can relate to different disciplines, such as financial, health and safety, and environmental objectives, and can apply at different levels, such as strategic, organization-wide, project, product and process levels. Note 3: an objective can be expressed in other ways, for example as an intended outcome, a purpose, an aim or an operating criterion. Note 4: a safety objective is set by the organization, is consistent with the safety policy and is safety related. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.16.

3.13 safety objective: objective set by the organization to achieve a specific result consistent with its safety policy.

3.14 safety culture: sum of the attitudes, ideas, awareness and patterns of behaviour towards safety that are widely recognized and shared by people and that are formed in the operating or management process of an organization, together with its safety rules and safety environment.

3.15 hazard: source with a potential to cause injury, damage to health, loss of property or damage to the environment. Note 1: a hazard is generally a state or behaviour, or a combination of them. Note 2: the term hazard in this document is sometimes understood or expressed as risk source.

3.16 risk: effect of uncertainty on objectives. Note 1: an effect is a deviation from the expected, positive or negative. Note 2: uncertainty is the state of deficiency of information, even partial, related to the understanding or knowledge of an event and of its consequence or likelihood. Note 3: risk is often characterized by reference to potential events and consequences, or a combination of these. Note 4: risk is often expressed in terms of a combination of the consequences of an event, including changes in circumstances, and the associated likelihood of occurrence. Note 5: risk in this document means safety risk.

3.17 safety risk: combination of the likelihood of the occurrence of a particular hazardous event, such as injury, damage to health, loss of property or damage to the environment, and the severity of its consequences.

3.18 hidden peril: unsafe behaviour of persons, unsafe state of things, defect of management, or a combination of one or more of these, that can lead to the occurrence of a safety incident.

3.19 monitoring: means and process of determining the status of a system, a process or an activity. Note: to determine the status, it may be necessary to check, supervise or critically observe.

3.20 audit: systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled. Note 1: an audit can be an internal audit, that is a first party audit, or an external audit, that is a second party or third party audit, and it can also be a combined audit, combining two or more disciplines. Note 2: an internal audit is conducted by the organization itself or by an external party on its behalf. Note 3: for audit evidence and audit criteria see GB/T 19011. Taken from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.32.

3.21 performance: measurable result. Note 1: performance can relate to either quantitative or qualitative findings. Note 2: performance can relate to the management of activities, processes, products, services, systems or organizations. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.27.

3.22 conformity: fulfilment of a requirement.

3.23 nonconformity: non-fulfilment of a requirement. Note: nonconformity relates to the requirements of this document and to the additional safety management system requirements that the organization has established for itself.

3.24 safety incident: situation that can cause or has caused injury, damage to health, loss of property or damage to the environment. Note 1: a safety incident in which injury, loss or damage occurs is sometimes called a safety accident. Note 2: an event in which no injury, loss or damage occurs but could have occurred is called in English near-miss, near-hit or close call, and in Chinese may also be called an unrealized incident, an unrealized accident or an accident hidden peril. Note 3: although a safety incident can involve one or more nonconformities, it can also occur where there is no nonconformity.

3.25 continual improvement: recurring activity to enhance performance. Note 1: enhancing performance relates to the use of the safety management system in order to achieve improvement in overall safety performance consistent with the safety policy and the safety objectives. Note 2: continual does not mean uninterrupted, so the activity need not take place in all areas at the same time. Adapted from GB/T 45001-2020, 3.37.

4.1 The organization and the context in which it operates

The organization is to determine the internal and external issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect the achievement of the intended results of its safety management system, including the issues affected by the organization and the issues able to affect the organization.

The organization is to monitor and evaluate the information relating to those internal and external issues.

Note 1: internal and external issues can be positive or negative and include conditions, characteristics or changes that can affect the safety management system of the organization. Note 2: to help in understanding the external context, issues arising from the international, national, regional or local political, legal, cultural, social, economic or financial, technological, market competition and natural environment are generally considered. Note 3: to help in understanding the internal context, issues related to the attributes, characteristics, values and culture of the organization are generally considered.