1. Purpose
This Policy sets out how Oxford Environmental Consultants Limited ensures it identifies, complies with and — where reasonable — exceeds the legal, regulatory, contractual and voluntary compliance obligations relevant to its business, and how it continually improves the effectiveness of its Integrated Management System (IMS).
2. Compliance obligations register
We maintain a Compliance Obligations Register, capturing every Act, Regulation, Approved Code of Practice, British Standard, contractual commitment and voluntary scheme that applies to our business. The Register is reviewed quarterly by the Quality / Compliance Manager with input from discipline leads, and updated following any legislative development, tender requirement or scheme revision.
3. Horizon scanning
We operate a structured horizon-scanning process to identify emerging legal and regulatory developments affecting our sector — including the Building Safety Regulator's guidance, Housing Ombudsman publications, HSE guidance updates, BS / ISO revisions and trade-body bulletins (FPA, IFSM, UKATA, BOHS, Federation of Mould). Relevant developments are briefed to the Senior Leadership Team and, where necessary, translated into revised procedures, objectives or training.
4. Compliance evaluation
Compliance is evaluated in line with ISO 14001 Clause 9.1.2 and ISO 45001 Clause 9.1.2. Evaluation takes the form of: planned internal audits; scheduled document review; periodic contract-level compliance checks; incident and complaint investigations; and an annual independent management-system audit by Citation / Atlas. Findings are recorded, risk-rated and tracked to closure in the Corrective Action Register.
5. Non-conformance, corrective and preventive action
Every non-conformance (whether identified internally, by a client, by a sub-contractor or by an external auditor) is recorded, investigated and root-cause-analysed using recognised techniques (5-Whys / Fishbone). Corrective actions target the root cause — not just the symptom — and, where appropriate, preventive actions are taken to stop recurrence across other areas of the business. All actions are timescaled, owned, and reviewed at monthly management meetings and annual management review.
6. Risks & opportunities
We maintain a live Risks & Opportunities Register in accordance with Clause 6.1 of ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001. Risks include: technical competence gaps; supply-chain failures; cyber security; legislative change; and environmental accident. Opportunities include: digital reporting platforms; new service lines; partner-scheme memberships; and carbon-reduction initiatives.
7. KPI and performance measurement
Continual improvement is measured through a balanced set of leading and lagging indicators, including: client satisfaction score; number of validated complaints; on-time delivery; percentage of projects passing technical peer review first time; number of internal audit findings raised and closed; near-miss reporting rate; RIDDOR-reportable events (target: zero); scope-1 and scope-2 carbon emissions; and training hours per head. KPIs are reviewed monthly by the SLT and reported at annual Management Review.
8. Client feedback
Structured client-feedback surveys are issued on completion of every contract. Feedback is analysed for trends, root-caused where negative and used to inform objective setting.
9. Continual improvement
Our commitment to continual improvement is expressed through: the annual objective-setting process; the operation of monthly improvement huddles; cross-discipline knowledge-sharing; documented lessons-learned logs at the close of every project; and a clear link between every identified opportunity and the resource or change required to realise it.
10. Transparency
We believe that transparency drives improvement. This Policy is published, reviewed annually and available to all interested parties on request.
Version: Reviewed February 2026. Next review February 2027.
This policy is maintained by Oxford Environmental Consultants Limited and forms part of our Integrated Management System certified by Citation / Atlas.