Safety and Health Management Systems (SHMS) and bizSAFE Risk Management Audits – comply with workplace safety and health regulations and promote continuous improvement within your organization.
In accordance with Singapore’s Workplace Safety and Health (Safety and Health Management Systems and Auditing) Regulations 2009, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has mandated that certain classes of workplaces must implement a Safety and Health Management System (SHMS). Each of these workplaces must appoint a workplace safety and health (WSH) auditor to regularly audit its SHMS. This auditor must meet the new accreditation criteria of the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC), CT 17 – Criteria for Accreditation of Auditing Organization (AO). The SAC accreditation scheme replaced the MOM WSH auditing scheme on October 1, 2018.
Such workplaces must also conduct bizSAFE risk assessments, based on WHS risk management regulations, for all work activities and processes. By law, these risk assessments must be reviewed as and when work activities change or every three years. SGS International Certification Services Singapore Pte Ltd is an SAC accredited auditing organization (SAC AO) and can provide you with auditing services (according to the scope of accreditation) that enable you to comply with these requirements.
What are the benefits?
By undergoing regular audits and reviews of its SHMS, your organization will experience continuous improvement while complying with Singapore’s workplace safety and health legislation.
What is the auditing process?
SGS will provide you with a questionnaire upon request. When we receive your completed questionnaire, we will send you a proposal outlining the scope and cost of the services along with an application for audit.
Once the application, along with any due payments and controlled copies of relevant documentation and samples (where applicable), is returned to us, we will allocate a qualified MOM WSH auditor to the project. This auditor will be responsible for ensuring that services are carried out in accordance with the relevant SAC AO and SGS International Certification Services (ICS) requirements. An SHMS audit report and audit testimony (if requested), based on the CT 17 template, will be issued upon successful completion of the audit.
Where can I find more information?
For more information about audit services based on the AO scheme, visit SGS Terms and Conditions, where you will find the General Conditions of Service, General Conditions for Certification Services, Knowledge Code of Practice and SGS Knowledge Statement of Impartiality. You will also find information about our audit processes, the use of the certification body’s name and certification mark or logo, and our processes for handling requests for information and complaints. Where the term “certification” is used, it is also applicable to “auditing”.
Which classes of workplaces do these regulations apply to?
| Type of workplace | How often to audit |
|---|---|
| Any worksite with a contract sum of $30 million or more | At least once every 6 months |
| Any shipyard employing 200 or more people | At least once every 12 months |
| Any factory engaged in manufacturing fabricated metal products, machinery or equipment, and which employs 100 or more people | At least once every 12 months |
| Any factory that processes or manufactures petroleum, petroleum products, petrochemicals or petrochemical products | At least once every 24 months |
| Any premises that stores toxic or flammable liquids at a storage capacity of 5,000 or more cubic metres | At least once every 24 months |
| Any factory manufacturing fluorine, chlorine, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide and synthetic polymers | At least once every 24 months |
| Any factory manufacturing pharmaceutical products or their intermediates | At least once every 24 months |
| Any factory manufacturing semiconductor wafers | At least once every 24 months |
What is the minimum audit duration?
The minimum audit duration is based on Annex 2 to Appendix 1 of CT 17 for SHMS and Annex 2 to Appendix 2 for bizSAFE risk management audits. The audit, conducted according to the AO scheme, is comprised of an initial audit and a subsequent audit. Factors that will increase the audit time are stated in Annex 2 of Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. Contact us for more information about our SHMS and bizSAFE risk management audits.
Notes:
(a) First initial audit for a worksite is to be completed within 6 months upon commencement of work activities at the worksite. The audit duration of construction worksites started operation more than 6 months ago will be based on the duration of a subsequent audit
(b) Initial audit refers to the audit by an Auditing Organisation of the workplace for the first time, after the 1st initial audit or a subsequent audit has been conducted by another Auditing Organisation. The duration of an initial audit for metalworking industries will be based on the duration of the 1st initial audit.
(c) IAF MD 22 - Application of ISO/IEC 17021-1 for the Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OH&SMS). For SHMS subsequent audits, Auditing Organisations shall consider the audit as an initial audit in IAF MD 22.
(d) Total mandays in the above table exclude off-site report writing. All auditors in the audit team shall be present on-site for at least one day in order to have adequate time for site appreciation and assessment, unless the total on-site audit duration is 1 manday.
Notes:
(a) Based on the number of worksites/locations/branches of the enterprise, the number of man-days should be justified for the number of on-site man-days conducted.
(b)The effective size (manpower) is the number of employees under the direct employment of the enterprise.
(c)The below table on complexity of the business sectors is referenced from Table OH&SMS 2 of IAF MD 22 for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.