I am not in the standards business, but I am affected by standards, especially BS OHSAS 18001 and later ISO 45001. Initially I was naive an thought that standards are made to help many people. But could it be possible, that consultants influence standardization mainly to create business for consultants? That still could be a naive question :-)

From an email from Oxebridge (spicy as usual):

[...] ISO 9001:2015 is a flawed product. It’s rife with confusing, feel-good platitudes, and light on actual requirements. It invents new concepts from thin air, and has abandoned the idea of standardizing established, mature Quality Management principles. It’s literally been called a “boon for consultants” by the very consultants that wrote it, giving you an insight into why they made it so incredibly frustrating. After all, now you have to hire them to decipher it. [...]

OH&S management systems should help to protect the health of employees. If Oxebridge (not to be confused with Oxbridge) is right and if a “strength” of the coming ISO 45001 should be, that it has a concept like ISO 9001, that may be bad news for employees. Could ISO 45001 be “light on actual requirements” too and just convey feel-good statements which – if they are no requirements – don’t really help employees?