Posted By Andy JC In my last job I inherited a BSC 5* for which I did the update and had a full interrogation for us to get 5* renewed. It was a very thorough interrogation of myself but they did not really check that anything worked (it did but that’s not the point) in reality. They also insisted on having all the safety system available on paper which meant killing a few trees since we had an all electronic system – all the remote staff had laptops and dial up. I recommended dropping the BSC 5* after that, since it showed that a paperwork system existed but did not our case at least, verify that it was an effective or relevant system. What I did do was get an OHAS 18001 gap analysis done by our ISO 9001 accreditors with a view of adopting it. I found this very much more useful: they were happy with a computer based system especially when they realised I could answer any documentation query before they’d finished reading the question out – it was that good a system. He then went around and checked that the system worked as advertised. The intention when I left was to make the system OHSAS 18001 compliant under the ISO 9001 quality system which will largely verify the safety system as one of the working procedures. When they get around to issuing the OHSAS as a formal standard then it will be formally approved. ISCA (www.isca.org.uk) have an excellent set of audit questions that will help lead you towards OHSAS 18001 compliance relatively painlessly: I’d suggest buying them and trying yourself first and then have a gap analysis. More useful in my opinion than the BSC 5*.

Posted By AlB We were audited for the BSC 5* for 5 years. Our results: 1st year - 2 star (I was not employed then) 2nd year - 4 star 3rd year - 5 star = Sword of Honour 4th year - 5 star + Sword of Honour 5th year - 5 star 6th year - stopped, as the benefit was more on the award than on continual improvement. We gained most improvement from BSi auditing. We had an excellent auditor for our BSC 5*, but it is more of a one-off audit, assessing the current status rather than aiming for continual improvement.

Posted By Jay Joshi British Safety Council's services, whether it is the new IOSH accredited diploma and certificates in Occupational Safety & Health or it's 5 Star Audit-- all have evolved and should not be compared to the didtant past. James Tye's era has been over since quite some time. I would urge all not to compare the quality and rigour of the 5 Star Audit System with what was available several years ago. I am speaking from personal experience as one who worked at BSC during the period of change --from 1998 to 2000 and was involved in "product/services" improvement/development