Inspectors from national standards body BSI have recertified our health and safety management system praising what they describe as a ‘very positive health and safety culture’ at Amazon Filters.
Formally recertifying us as compliant with the ISO 45001 health and safety standard, BSI made particular reference to the effectiveness of recent training initiatives for team members.
Under the ISO 45001 inspection regime, workplaces receive overall re-certification audits every three years along with six-monthly ‘surveillance visits’ on specific requirements.
The in-person assessment for Amazon Filters took place at our production centre in Camberley, Surrey.
‘Shopfloor’ interviews and investigations were held across various departments including Housing Design and Housing Component Manufacturing.
The audit included assessments of how working areas operate PPE (personal protective equipment) and manage the ‘Control of Substances Hazardous to Health’ (COSHH) such as chemicals, fumes, dusts and vapours.
Rebecca Andrews, Health & Safety and Facilities Manager, said: “This was a highly successful re-certification involving lots of management system analysis which found no ‘non-conformances’ in ISO requirements.
“It is fantastic to have such external, independent recognition of how well we run our health and safety processes and the fact we operate a safe working environment.
“Our successful journey of improvement is only possible through continual engagement with employees, having the best resources and support from top management and by monitoring the effectiveness of initiatives we put in place.
“Conforming to ISO standards is ingrained behaviour, not something we do at the last minute just because we have an inspection.”
Rebecca, who chairs an in-house health and safety committee with 12 colleagues from across the company, added: “On the training side, we had re-designed our induction processes since the last re-certification in 2021 and the benefit of that was specifically commented on by our latest auditor.
“Employees selected at random for interviews included a colleague who had only been in post for week and yet they answered all the questions fully.
“The auditor said this showed our training processes on health and safety are operating very effectively.
“Achieving such a vote of confidence through recertification in this way is quite an achievement for a company that is continually growing.”
Our health and safety audit followed a separate BSI recertification for the environmental protection standard, ISO 14001, successfully achieved in April 2024.
Other standards we hold include ISO 9001 for quality management and assurance.
In the municipal water industry, our SupaSpun II filters comply with Regulation 31 of The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016.
This is a recognised standard overseen by the Drinking Water Inspectorate designed to safeguard the purification and supply of public water.
In the food industry, there are formal audits to show that our processes and product manufacture comply with rules governing halal and kosher products.
Certificates are issued following site visits by the Halal Food Authority and the London Beth Din Kashrut Division respectively.
Being a global exporter, Amazon Filters products also have to meet differing governmental standards laid down in, for example, EU food contact regulations and the requirements of the US Food and Drug Administration.
And earlier this year we became one of the first UK manufacturers to be granted ‘Fit for’ status under a new standards programme for the hydrogen production and carbon capture industries.
This involved a series of assessments, audits and questionnaires under the schemes Fit for Hydrogen (F4H2) and Fit for Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (F4CCUS).
It means that Amazon Filters can provide a strengthened proposition for supporting regional, national and global engineering projects focused on decarbonisation.
After a pilot programme in the Humber region in 2023, F4H2 and F4CCUS were approved as extensions of a long-standing ‘Fit for’ model of supplier development led by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
We had already achieved AMRC’s Fit for Nuclear accreditation in 2016, demonstrating our credentials as a manufacturer for the energy industry.