Martin Cottam has been named as the chair of International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) new Technical Committee for Occupational Health and Safety Management – ISO/TC 283 from 2018 to 2023.
As Chair, Martin Cottam becomes responsible for the overall management of the committee, including sub-committees and working groups. Cottam will play a direct role in the committee's day-to-day work; helping to manage projects effectively and leading the committee in reaching consensus. ISO/TC 283 is the new technical committee for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Management, replacing the project committee that developed the new international standard for OH&S Management, ISO 45001:2018.
Commenting on the appointment, Cottam says, “As Chair of ISO/TC 283, I am delighted to be given the opportunity to shape the future of ISO 45001. Globally, there’s still a lot of scope to improve the health and safety of workers and we’re keen to ensure that ISO 45001 contributes to that. We’d like to see the adoption of this standard spread more widely than that of predecessor standards such as the well-known OHSAS 18001.”
Cottam is Group Technical Assurance & Quality Director, with overall responsibility for quality management and technical governance across LRQA. He began his career in the nuclear industry, undertaking risk assessment and safety case preparation before joining LRQA in 1990. Cottam has contributed to the development and revisions of several British Standards on OH&S management and to the development of OHSAS 18001. He has been active in Standards development since the 1990s and was also involved in the development of the ISO 55000 series of standards on Asset Management.
He is a member of BSI’s Management Systems Expert Group and chaired the BSI Committee HS/1, throughout the development of ISO 45001; leading the UK delegation for the ISO 45001 project committee. Within the ISO 45001 committee, he led the Task Group responsible for developing the sections within the standard addressing planning and the management of risks and opportunities.
