The register should accurately cover all activities, products, and services, i.e. be bespoke to the organisation. It doesn’t need to include anything that isn’t relevant, otherwise you will waste time assessing legislation that doesn’t affect you.

You should be confident that there are no applicable laws missing from your register. Setting up your register correctly is key to ensuring all necessary legislation has been included; that’s why LUS provides a simple set up tool to help you decide what should be in your register.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine and have access to their compliance obligations relevant to its environmental aspects.”
• ISO 45001:2018 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine and have access to up-to-date legal requirements and other requirements that are applicable to its hazards, OH&S risks and OH&S management system.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 4.2): “The organisation shall have access to the applicable legal requirements and other requirements related to its energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption.”

The register should not only show which pieces of law are applicable but also how each law applies to the organisation, i.e. its compliance duties. 

The organisation needs to understand why the legislation applies and what it needs to do in order to achieve compliance.

In LUS, this is achieved by reading the plain English summary and duties provided in every entry.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine how these compliance obligations apply to the organisation.”
• ISO 45001 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine how these legal requirements and other requirements apply to the organisation and what needs to be communicated.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 4.2): “The organisation shall determine how these requirements apply to its energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption.”

We’ve translated the original legislation into plain English summaries without the legal jargon to make it easier to understand which parts of the legislation apply to your organisation and why. LUS also has an ‘add your own summary and duties’ section within each entry for you to document how a piece of law specifically applies to you.

This is particularly useful when you have lots of different people viewing your register who need to understand relevance.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine how these compliance obligations apply to the organisation.” AND “The organisation shall maintain documented information of compliance obligations.”
• ISO 45001 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine how these legal requirements and other requirements apply to the organisation and what needs to be communicated” AND “The organisation shall maintain and retain documented information on legal requirements and other requirements and shall ensure that it is updated to reflect any changes.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 4.2): “The organisation shall determine how these requirements apply to its energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption.”

It isn’t enough to identify the relevant pieces of law and determine how they apply; you must also carry out an initial compliance assessment (or audit) of your current performance against each law. A legal register should record the results of this initial compliance assessment, as well as link to any supporting information that evidences the level of compliance against each piece of legislation.

LUS provides a section for adding compliance comments and attaching supporting documents to help you with this.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall maintain documented information of compliance obligations.”
• ISO 45001 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall maintain and retain documented information on legal requirements and other requirements and shall ensure that it is updated to reflect any changes.”

Your legal register should clearly show your current compliance status against each piece of law so you can see where there are any issues that need to be addressed and to facilitate effective communication of compliance status to relevant personnel.

LUS provides a simple visual traffic light function for this.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall maintain knowledge and understanding of its compliance status.”
• ISO 45001 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall maintain knowledge and understanding of its compliance status with legal requirements and other requirements.”

New legislation is brought into force all the time, as well as changes constantly being made to existing laws. The register needs updating to reflect any new or amended laws that apply to the organisation, as well as anything that has been revoked or replaced.

Within LUS, this happens automatically once a month. You are told about this in two ways; through the newsletter (which is sent at the end of each month) and via the ‘New in Your Register’ section.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine and have access to their compliance obligations relevant to its environmental aspects.”
• ISO 45001:2018 (Clause 6.1.3): “The organisation shall determine and have access to up-to-date legal requirements and other requirements that are applicable to its hazards, OH&S risks and OH&S management system.” AND “The organisation shall maintain and retain documented information on legal requirements and other requirements and ensure it is updated to reflect any changes.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 4.2): “The organisation shall have access to the applicable legal requirements and other requirements related to its energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption.”

A legal register is a live document and should be reviewed regularly and all legislation contained with the register re-evaluated at defined frequencies determined by your organisation. Your legal register should show how often you carry out your compliance evaluations and the results of these.

Within LUS, you have the option to set a review date so you can be reminded when a new compliance assessment is needed. Your compliance comments are time and date stamped providing an audit trail for each piece of legislation in your register.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall determine the frequency that compliance will be evaluated, evaluate compliance and take action if needed.” AND “The organisation shall retain documented information as evidence of the compliance evaluation results.”
• ISO 45001:2015 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall determine the frequency and method for the evaluation of compliance, evaluate compliance and take action if needed…. Retain documented information of the compliance evaluation results.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 9.1.2): “At planned intervals, the organisation shall evaluate compliance with legal and other requirements. The organisation shall retain documented information on the results of the evaluation of compliance and any actions taken.”

If your initial compliance assessment or ongoing compliance evaluations identify any areas of non-compliance or opportunities for improvement, the legal register should allow for recording the compliance actions or recommendations that have been identified to address these, as well as being able to track progress against them.

LUS allows you to set actions, assign users and deadline dates for completion. You can then monitor how effectively these are being closed out and update your compliance status as a result.

Relevant Standards requirements:

• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 6.1.4): “The organisation shall plan to take actions to address its compliance obligations.”
• ISO 14001:2015 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall determine the frequency that compliance will be evaluated, evaluate compliance and take action if needed.”
• ISO 45001:2015 (Clause 6.1.4): “The organisation shall plan actions to address legal requirements and other requirements.”
• ISO 45001:2015 (Clause 9.1.2): “The organisation shall determine the frequency and method for the evaluation of compliance, evaluate compliance and take action if needed.”
• ISO 50001:2018 (Clause 9.1.2): “At planned intervals, the organisation shall evaluate compliance with legal and other requirements. The organisation shall retain documented information on the results of the evaluation of compliance and any actions taken.”