Who we are

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is the only Chartered body for health and safety professionals in the world.

We were founded in 1945 and have been registered as a charity since 1962. In 2002 we were awarded a Royal Charter.

As the largest health and safety membership organisation in the world, IOSH has more than 40,000 individual members in 99 countries.

Across the world, two million people die every year as a result of health and safety failures therefore we’re committed to creating “A world of work which is safe, healthy and sustainable”. That’s why one of our main aims is to maintain high standards throughout the profession via the training courses IOSH delivers. IOSH is one of the world's leaders in health and safety training – more than 130,000 people take one of our courses every year.

What does IOSH do?

We work with a range of organisations (national and international) to raise awareness – and standards, developing training for schools and businesses, and running campaigns that are relevant to millions of working people.

As well as lobbying governments on policy and law, we accredit qualifications for our members, give guidance, develop resources and run courses and events to help organisations in their work.

Read about us to find out more about our work.

Crystal Mark for Plain English

Our website has been awarded the Internet Crystal Mark by the Plain English Campaign. 

The Plain English Campaign looks for information in the public domain to be concise, clear, user-friendly, and for websites to be easy to use. The Mark recognises our commitment to a friendly and crystal clear site. We will continue to work hard to maintain this high standard into the future.