What is the Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit?
An independent, quantified assessment of your occupational health and safety management performance against contemporary best practice.
The Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit provides a quantified outcome and detailed recommendations against a comprehensive best-practice specification, incorporating the requirements of ISO 45001 and extending beyond conventional occupational health and safety management system standards.
The audit helps organisations understand their current performance, identify improvement priorities and demonstrate their commitment to health and safety excellence to employees, clients and other stakeholders.
Enquire now ↗LATEST SPECIFICATION
2026 Five Star Audit Specification
Access the 2026 Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit specification and the accompanying summary of changes.
2026 Audit Specification
Review the specification used to assess occupational health and safety management performance.
Download specification ↗2026 Summary of Changes
Understand the revisions introduced in the 2026 audit specification.
Download summary of changes ↗THE AUDIT FRAMEWORK
Assessing the foundations of health and safety excellence
The audit assesses key best-practice indicators throughout the review process, helping organisations evaluate both their management arrangements and the effectiveness of implementation.
Leadership
The role of leadership in establishing direction, responsibility and commitment to occupational health and safety.
Stakeholder engagement
How relevant stakeholders are consulted, involved and engaged in workplace health and safety.
Risk management
The systems and practices used to identify, assess and manage occupational health and safety risks.
Organisational health and safety culture
How workplace values, behaviours and established practices influence health and safety performance.
Continual improvement
How performance findings are translated into actions that support progressive improvement.
Who should undertake the Five Star OHS Audit?
The audit is suitable for organisations of any size and sector seeking an independent assessment of their occupational health and safety management systems.
It is equally relevant to organisations looking for a structured route towards best-practice performance.
TWO KEY OBJECTIVES
Assess current performance
Understand the status of your existing OHSMS against best-practice requirements.
Plan improvement
Identify a structured route towards stronger management arrangements and best-practice performance.
Why the Five Star OHS Audit is right for your organisation
Going beyond conventional management system requirements, the audit provides independent insight into organisational performance, helping you demonstrate commitment and focus improvement efforts where they matter.
Independent verification
An external evaluation of your OHSMS against best-practice standards.
Stakeholder confidence
Evidence of commitment to health and safety for employees, clients and other interested parties.
Structured improvement
Detailed findings and recommendations that support focused action planning.
Quantified benchmarking
Assess performance across the specification and identify relative strengths and gaps.
Potential performance benefits
Opportunities to improve safety outcomes, workforce wellbeing, morale and operational performance.
Achievement and recognition
Applicable certification and permitted use of achievement branding to communicate success.
AUDIT METHODOLOGY
How does the audit work?
The audit evaluates documented management arrangements and how they are implemented in practice, using multiple sources of evidence.
DOCUMENTATION
On-site documentation review
Review relevant policies, procedures, records and management system documentation.
ENGAGEMENT
Stakeholder interviews
Discussions with relevant stakeholders, including top management, to understand implementation and engagement.
VERIFICATION
Operational sampling
Examine selected operational activities and working practices to assess how arrangements function in practice.
Prerequisites: None.
AUDIT DELIVERABLES
What will your organisation receive?
The Five Star OHS Audit provides documented findings, quantified results and recommendations to support organisational decision-making and improvement planning.
Detailed audit report
A comprehensive record of findings and assessment outcomes.
Recommendations and action planning
Detailed recommendations to address areas requiring improvement.
Quantified outcomes across 56 elements
Element-level results based on the applicable audit specification.
Performance benchmarking
Insight into performance across different aspects of the audit specification.
Certification of achievement
Certification reflecting the audit outcome, subject to the scheme's requirements.
Potential Sword of Honour eligibility
Organisations achieving a Five Star rating may be eligible to apply, subject to the award scheme's additional criteria and rules.
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE
Understanding the Five Star OHS Audit
Hear from our audit expert
Dave Parr, Head of Audit and Technical, explains the Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit in greater detail.
Explore the audit's approach to assessing management systems and supporting organisational improvement.
Discuss your Five Star Audit requirements
Our team can help you understand the audit specification, assessment process and next steps.
Why choose British Safety Council India?
Our internationally recognised audit and consultancy services support organisations in evaluating the effectiveness of their management arrangements, strengthening implementation and pursuing continual improvement.
Continually reviewed audit services
Our audit and consultancy products are regularly reviewed against customer needs, expectations and sector best practice.
Robust quality assurance
Auditor standardisation, training and performance monitoring support consistently high standards of service.
Technical expertise
Our technical specialists serve on strategic committees for occupational health, safety and environmental standards.
Internationally recognised methodology
Our Five Star Audit process offers a structured, quantified approach to assessing performance against best practice.
Industry recognition
Recognition opportunities through schemes such as the Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour, subject to eligibility.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Benchmark your performance against best practice
The Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit helps your organisation assess current performance, understand opportunities for improvement and establish a structured route towards health and safety excellence.
Request a call back to learn more about the 2026 specification and discuss your organisation's audit requirements.
Enquire now ↗FAQs
Here is a list of common questions that people ask us. If you can’t find what you’re looking for please email [email protected] or call us on +91 2241437969.
What consultancy services do you offer?
Our health and safety and environmental consultancy services are based entirely on customer needs and involve one of our experts helping to support improvements in performance in general or more specific areas (for example: risk assessments, training needs analysis, legionella surveys, asbestos management, permit to work processes, strategic planning, culture surveys, etc.)
What audits does the British Safety Council offer?
We currently offer a range of audit products and services including our best practice Five Star Wellbeing Audit, Five Star Occupational Health and Safety, Five Star Environmental and Five Star Integrated audits. We also offer certification audits to the ISO 14001 (2015) standards and the ISO 45001 standard (when issued). A bespoke sector-specific systems review service (safety and environmental) is also available and provides a baseline indication of how effectively your safety, health and/or environmental systems are being implemented across multiple sites or within specific departments.
Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit - what is it?
Our Five Star Audit is an internationally recognised, quantified and comprehensive audit process used by organisations to compare their health and safety management system against best practice technique and current trends.
Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit - what is changing?
The current specification continues to offer you the opportunity to progress toward a best practice occupational health and safety management system(s) and the business benefits this can produce. The specification aligns best practice safety management indicators (including leadership and stakeholder engagement) against a Plan - Do - Check - Act management model.
As part of the British Safety Council’s commitment to the continual product-improvement, together with a recognition of recent developments in legislative and safety management trends, our five-star audit specification(s) are reviewed on an annual basis.
Five Star Environmental Audit - what is it?
Our Five Star Environmental Audit is an internationally recognised audit process used by leading organisations to compare their environmental performance against best practice and current trends.
What is the Sword of Honour?
The Sword of Honour is an award scheme available to organisations that have achieved a five-star rating in our Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit. A separate award process is independently adjudicated and only those submissions from five star organisations, which meet defined criteria, are awarded the sword of honour status. A true recognition of excellence in health and safety management.
What is the Globe of Honour?
The Globe of Honour is an award scheme available to organisations that have achieved a five-star rating in our Five Star Environmental Audit. A separate award process is independently adjudicated and only those submissions from five star organisations, which meet defined criteria, are awarded the globe of honour status. A true recognition of excellence in environmental management.
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