1. International and Local Board-Level Governance: Legal and Fiduciary Duties
1.1. International frameworks include International Labour Organisation Convention 155 (ILO, 1981), International Labour Organisation Convention 187 (ILO, 2006) and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN, 2011).
1.2. National legal examples for comparative analysis include: the United Kingdom (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007), the United States (Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970), European Union directives, the Middle East (UAE Labour Law, KSA Labour Law), Africa (South African Occupational Health and Safety Act, Nigerian Factories Act), Asia (Singapore Workplace Safety and Health Act, India Factories Act, Japan Industrial Safety and Health Act) and Australia (Model Work Health and Safety Act).
1.3. Director duties differ between common law and civil law approaches.
1.4. Non-executive directors play specific roles in health and safety oversight.
1.5. The concept of "visibility of leadership" varies across cultures.
1.6. Board-level health and safety key performance indicators and balanced scorecards are essential tools.
1.7. Case studies include: The George building collapse in South Africa (Swart, 2022); Niger Delta oil spills in Nigeria (UNEP, 2011); Grenfell Tower in the UK (Grenfell Tower Inquiry, 2019); Rana Plaza in Bangladesh (ILO, 2015); and Deepwater Horizon (National Commission, 2011).
2. Health and Safety Governance Models: Global Variations
2.1. Multinational corporations may adopt centralised or decentralised governance structures.
2.2. The role of health and safety committees at board level varies between mandatory and voluntary arrangements by jurisdiction.
2.3. Assurance frameworks include the three lines of defence model (Institute of Internal Auditors, 2013).
2.4. Governance of health and safety must address joint ventures, supply chains and subcontracting.
3. Integration with Corporate Strategy: Global Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks
3.1. Health and safety in Environmental, Social and Governance is addressed by Global Reporting Initiative standards (GRI, 2021), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB, 2018) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, 2017).
3.2. Corporate Social Responsibility and reputational risk vary across different cultural contexts.
3.3. Strategic risk appetite requires defining and quantifying tolerable risk.
3.4. Health and safety considerations in mergers, acquisitions and due diligence require attention to cross-border factors.
3.5. The business case for health and safety must be adapted for different economic contexts.
4. Health and Safety Management Systems at Scale: International Standards
4.1. ISO 45001:2018 has strategic application beyond compliance (International Organization for Standardization, 2018).
4.2. ILO-OSH 2001 provides a comparison with ISO 45001 (ILO, 2001).
4.3. National standards and National and regional adaptations must be considered for both ISO 45001 and ILO-OSH 2001, as applicable to the specific jurisdiction and industry sector.
4.4. System integration includes quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 14001) and security.
4.5. Certification, accreditation and third-party assurance have benefits and limitations.
4.6. Digital health and safety management systems and board-level dashboards support strategic oversight.
5. Strategic Planning and Review: Local and Global
5.1. Strategic health and safety planning cycles must adapt to national planning horizons.
5.2. Horizon scanning for emerging risks includes global trends such as climate change, artificial intelligence, the gig economy and pandemics.
5.3. Stakeholder mapping and influence strategies vary across cultures.
5.4. Annual strategic review includes content, process and outcomes.
5.5. Benchmarking involves international comparisons against local sector benchmarks.
6. International and Local Application: Guidance for Learners
6.1. High-resource settings can adopt advanced governance models, ISO certification and integrated Environmental, Social and Governance reporting.
6.2. Low-resource settings should focus on building governance fundamentals and adapting international standards to local capacity.
6.3. Multinational organisations must harmonise governance across jurisdictions with different legal requirements.
6.4. Domestic small and medium-sized enterprises should implement proportionate governance and board-level engagement without formal structures.
Example Candidate Response Booklet
Example Candidate Response (ECR) Booklets are a source of crucial information for Centres and Candidates as they use real candidate responses. We ask Senior Examiners to comment on five or more responses in terms of why the mark was awarded with commentary about how to improve the answer (if necessary).
