Clause 5.3: Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities
Top management makes sure that, for the relevant roles in the OH&S management system, responsibilities and authorities are given out and made known at every level, and are kept as documented information.
What clause 5.3 asks
Top management makes sure that, for the relevant roles in the OH&S management system, responsibilities and authorities are given out and made known at every level, and are kept as documented information. At every level, workers take responsibility for those parts of the system they control. Top management gives responsibility and authority for making sure the system conforms to the standard and for reporting to top management on how the system performs.
Responsibility has to sit with the people who control the work, not only with the safety function. The clause also requires a named route to top management for conformity and performance.
Draft 5.3 Roles, responsibilities and authorities, from clause 5.3. The draft title drops the word organizational. The public summaries do not describe a substantive change; the harmonized structure wording is expected to be adopted.
Evidence for clause 5.3
An auditor will ask a line manager and a supervisor what they are accountable for, then compare the answer with the matrix.
- Roles and responsibilitiesDocumented responsibility matrix for OH&S roles at all levels
- Roles and responsibilitiesJob descriptions with OH&S accountabilities
- Roles and responsibilitiesNamed person responsible for conformity and performance reporting
- Roles and responsibilitiesCommunication records
Where clause 5.3 commonly fails
- Responsibilities assigned to the safety function only
- Line managers' OH&S accountabilities not written down
- No defined reporting route to top management
What to do about clause 5.3 before the revision
Rewrite the matrix by role and by process, and include supervisors, contractors and temporary staff. Name the person with authority for conformity and the reporting route to top management. Test the matrix by asking three people what they own.
What the record shows for clause 5.3
An auditor working on clause 5.3 will start with Documented responsibility matrix for OH&S roles at all levels. The failure this record sees most often is Responsibilities assigned to the safety function only. Both are carried into the kit as row 7, with an owner field and a dated action.
Read across from clause 5.3
Read the next clause in the group, or open the full index. The revision map shows the draft structure.
Source for clause 5.3: ISO 45001:2018, clause 5.3, retrieved 18 October 2026. The draft note rests on the public DIS contents and the two named summaries; the requirement, evidence and gaps are written from the held clause record. Every source.