8.1.3 Occupational health
The draft adds a new 8.1.3, Occupational health, requiring processes to protect workers' health. The public summaries describe prevention and early detection of ill health, access to occupational health services and reasonable adjustments where a worker's health or capacity changes.
The 2018 edition handled health through hazard identification, health surveillance and the general operational controls, without a dedicated operational clause. The draft gives occupational health its own place in Clause 8. That changes the audit question from whether health hazards were identified to whether there is a process that protects health and adjusts work when capacity changes.
The public summaries are consistent on the shape of the duty: prevent ill health where the work can cause it, detect it early where prevention is incomplete, give access to occupational health advice, and make reasonable adjustments when a worker's health or capacity changes. The detail remains a draft and can change before publication.
This is the clause most likely to expose a gap in an otherwise strong system. Health surveillance records are often held by an occupational health provider and never connected to the risk assessment, the return-to-work process or the management review.
What an auditor is likely to ask for
- A health risk assessment by hazard and role, linked to the risk register
- Health surveillance or screening records, with the statutory basis and the consent position for each
- Access arrangements to occupational health advice, with response times
- Reasonable adjustment records, including who decided, what changed and when it was reviewed
- Evidence that health data is handled under the applicable data protection rules
These are the records this site expects a reader to hold for the new duty. They are our reading, not draft text, and they will be checked against the published standard when it exists.
Where it commonly fails today
- Health surveillance is bought as a stand-alone service and never feeds the risk assessment
- No process for adjusting work when a worker's capacity changes
- Health records held without a lawful basis or a retention rule
What to do now, while it is still a draft
Do not rebuild the system around a draft. Do the work that will be right under either edition: name the owner, write the process, keep the record, and put the clause reference on a list to update at publication. If the published text differs, the process survives the wording change.
Read the 2018 requirement it comes from Back to the clause map
Source for draft clause 8.1.3: the public DIS contents for the clause title, and the named certification-body summaries for the reported direction. The draft requirement text is not public and is not reproduced. Every source.