Posted By Steven John Nelson
Are there any ?

Can anyone advise me where I can find info upon the above, and whether I can &/or should associate an accredited level of training &/or competence with the role of H&S auditor ? Are there prescriptive requirements for the competency of H&S auditors, where cokmpliance with ISO18001 ? Do training courses exist, for H&S auditors, which are aligned to competecny standards - if &/or where thse exist ?

Posted By Ian Waldram
IOSH has some pretty good CPD courses too!
Probably the most widely recognised auditor training and practice standards are by IRCA - see information on their website. ISO also have an auditor competence standard, but as there is no ISO OSH-MS standard, it doesn't apply directly.

However one weakness to these standards is that there is no requirement for the auditor to have any separate technical competence in the system being audited. The best Certification bodies do set internal OSH competence requirements for their OSH-MS auditors, but there is nothing mandatory. The IOSH guidance on OSH-MS systems (see 'Techncial information' upper left') says quite a bit about auditors and how to get the most from them.