scope:

Inclusions

This Standard specifies the requirements to address occupational health and safety (OHS) incident investigation and prevention program (IIPP). This Standard can be applied to inform investigations by organizations in any type of industry of any size.

Exemptions

This Standard does not specify requirements for criminal or regulatory enforcement investigations.

Notes:

1) The investigation principles of this Standard can be applied to non-OHS investigations, such as environmental incidents.

2) Some investigations can involve, or evolve into, a criminal or regulatory investigation. Organizations need to plan for this possibility.

Terminology

In this Standard, "shall" is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the Standard; "should" is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; and "may" is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the Standard.

Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.

Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements.

Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.

Guidance on Clause 1

Clause 1.1 provides a high-level overview of the requirements for an occupational health and safety (OHS) incident investigation and prevention program (IIPP). It notes the Standard is scalable and applicable to any organization regardless of its size and the nature of its activities. The Standard has been developed based on the goal of performing investigations to determine causal and contributing factors that relate to OHS incidents.

It is also important to note what the Standard does not cover. The exemptions are listed in Clause 1.2. Though investigations related to incidents in the workplace might lead to issues involving authorities having jurisdiction for health and safety or criminal law, the Standard does not specifically include those interactions. The requirements and recommended process may be used for other types of investigations (e.g., epidemiological disease investigations or environmental incidents); however, the Standard does not specifically cover those situations.

Clause 1.3 discusses terminology related to requirements. When reading the Standard, it is important to note the difference between normative content (outcomes that are required to comply with the requirements of the Standard) and guidance (advice or examples provided by the Technical Committee, often to bring clarity to a normative requirement).

Content that appears before Clause 1 is not normative. The normative clauses of the Standard include the scope (Clause 1), publication references (Clause 2), definitions (Clause 3), and the technical requirements (Clauses 4 to 9).

As outlined in Clause 1.3, text within these clauses that include the word "shall" are required to meet compliance with the Standard. Text that includes the word "should" are not requirements, but recommendations that the Technical Committee felt were important to include. Texts with the word "may" are permissive and indicate options that are allowable by the Standard.

While an organization can apply the entire Standard or parts of it to improve its overall OHS performance through the management of certain aspects of incident investigation, the organization cannot make claims of conformity unless all normative requirements, without exclusion, are met.