An integrated management system, usually shortened to IMS, brings multiple management standards together into one effective system. For most UK organisations that means ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety, built and audited as a single system rather than three parallel ones.
The word that carries the weight is "one". An IMS is not three separate systems joined together with a folder of cross-references and good intentions. It is an integrated management system with linkages, so that similar processes are seamlessly managed in a single place. One policy framework, one set of procedures, one internal audit programme, one management review cycle.
An IMS compared with three standalone systems
An integrated management system comprises two or more management systems merged together. That definition is short, but it distinguishes integration from simply holding three certificates at once.
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Standalone approach: three policies, three document control procedures, three internal audit schedules, three management reviews and a mapping document that nobody enjoys maintaining.
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Integrated approach: shared processes managed once, with standard-specific requirements layered on top only where they genuinely differ.
Integration does not mean flattening the differences between standards. Environmental aspects and impacts still need environmental thinking. Occupational health and safety hazards still need health and safety thinking. What gets merged is the supporting machinery: document control, competence and training records, internal audit, corrective action and management review.
Where Annex SL fits in
The reason integration is practical rather than an administrative project is the shared structure sitting behind the standards. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 follow the Annex SL structure, which allows organisations to align the common requirements found in Clauses 4 onwards. Clause numbers match across the three standards, so a requirement about documented information, competence or performance evaluation turns up in the same place each time. Build one process and it can satisfy three sets of wording.
Annex SL provides the common clause structure and shared core requirements that these standards follow. Its purpose is alignment, so that each standard stops inventing its own clause order and its own way of describing the same management activity. Where integration once meant maintaining differently numbered documents and a cross-reference table to prove they said the same thing, a shared structure removes most of that effort because the numbering already lines up.
Annex SL is maintained through the ISO standards system, so if you need the authoritative text or want to check the current position, take it from the published standard or your certification body rather than a summary.
The common clauses in most ISO management standards
Because the three standards share the same skeleton, the clause headings line up almost exactly. The table below shows that shared structure. Always work from the published standard for the requirements sitting beneath each heading, since the detail differs from one standard to the next.
Clause | Heading | What it covers in an integrated system |
|---|---|---|
4 | Context of the organisation | Understanding the organisation and its context, interested parties, the scope of the management system and its processes |
5 | Leadership | Top management commitment, policy, and the roles, responsibilities and authorities that support the system |
6 | Planning | Risks and opportunities, objectives, and planning to achieve those objectives |
7 | Support | Resources, competence, awareness, communication and documented information |
8 | Operation | Planning and control of the operational processes the organisation actually runs |
9 | Performance evaluation | Monitoring, measurement, analysis, evaluation, internal audit and management review |
10 | Improvement | Nonconformity, corrective action and continual improvement |
Clauses 4 and 5 are where integration comes almost for free. Clauses 7, 9 and 10 are where the duplication savings are largest. Clause 8 is where you need to be most careful, because operational control means different things when you are managing product conformity, environmental impacts and health and safety risks.
What an integrated system looks like in the documentation
IMS manuals in circulation cover ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 inside a single controlled document, with one index, one amendment record and one set of procedures. That is a long way from three folders and a mapping table.
In a well-built system you would expect to find:
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One document control procedure applied across all three standards
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One internal audit procedure feeding a single audit programme
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One corrective action process, with separate logs only where that genuinely helps
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One management review process and one record of the meeting
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Standard-specific content kept visible, such as environmental aspects and impacts, hazard identification, and the quality objectives that protect product and service conformity
How much you merge is a judgement call. Requirements that use the same words should be merged. Requirements that use different words should stay distinct and traceable, even when they sit in the same document.
Internal auditing in an integrated management system
This is where the savings become obvious. Instead of three audit cycles landing in the same quarter and pulling the same managers out of the same meetings, one programme covers quality, environment and health and safety together.
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One audit schedule, planned against risk and process importance rather than against three separate calendars
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Auditors cover shared clauses such as document control, competence or corrective action once
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Findings land in a single corrective action log, so ownership is obvious and nothing gets lost between standards
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Auditor competence can be developed across all three standards, giving you more flexibility in a small team
Integrated audits do need discipline. An auditor covering shared clauses can drift into treating the three standards as interchangeable, which is how environmental and health and safety content ends up under-examined. Build the standard-specific sections into the checklist rather than assuming they will be picked up.
Management review in an integrated system
Rather than three review meetings with three sets of minutes, a single review covers the performance of the whole system. The agenda still has to satisfy each standard's own requirements, so check ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 individually before you trim anything from the meeting. Where organisations get this wrong, it is nearly always by dropping an input that one standard requires and the others do not.
Done properly, the integrated review gives leadership a joined-up picture: quality performance, environmental performance and health and safety performance discussed in one room, with one set of decisions and one set of actions flowing back into the system.
Benefits of an integrated management system
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Less duplication in documentation, because shared procedures are written once
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A single internal audit programme instead of three separate cycles
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One management review covering all three standards
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Similar processes managed seamlessly rather than repeated with different wording
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Clearer traceability, since a shared clause number points to the same evidence across standards
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Easier expansion, as adding a further standard to an established IMS is usually simpler than starting from scratch
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Stronger leadership engagement, with commitment, policy and responsibilities sitting in one Clause 5 rather than three
The overall effect is a more streamlined management system, which is exactly the argument the standards themselves make easier by sharing a structure.
Where an integrated management system is not the right answer
Integration is not automatic and it is not always worth the effort. If you hold one standard, you already have a single system and there is nothing to integrate. If two standards are run by separate teams with separate processes, no shared objectives and no appetite to merge them, forcing them into one manual tends to produce paperwork rather than improvement.
There is a second failure mode worth watching for. In a poorly integrated manual, quality content dominates and environmental and health and safety requirements are buried in appendices. Auditors notice. So do the people who have to use the system day to day.
It is also worth checking whether the standards you want to combine genuinely share a structure. Those that follow Annex SL align cleanly. Those that do not may only integrate partially, and that limitation should be recognised at the planning stage rather than discovered during an audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an integrated management system?
An integrated management system comprises two or more management standards merged into a single system rather than run side by side. In the UK the most common combination is ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety. Shared processes such as document control, internal audit and management review are managed once, while standard-specific requirements remain distinct.
Can ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 be certified together?
Yes. These three standards can work together as part of an integrated management system, which helps organisations reduce duplication across clauses, audits and reviews. Certification bodies do assess integrated systems, although the practical arrangements can vary between them. Confirm the specifics with your chosen certification body before you plan your audit programme, particularly around audit days and scheduling.
What is Annex SL?
Annex SL provides the common structure that ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 follow. It gives each standard the same clause order and a shared set of core requirements from Clause 4 onwards, which is what allows organisations to align common requirements instead of maintaining three parallel systems. For the authoritative wording and any revisions, refer to the published standard or your certification body.
Do you need a separate manual for each standard?
No. Published IMS manuals cover ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 in a single controlled document. Merging shared content such as document control, internal audit, corrective action and management review removes duplication and gives auditors one place to look. Keep standard-specific material clearly identifiable, including environmental aspects and impacts and health and safety hazard information, so each standard's requirements stay traceable.
Which standards can be added to an integrated management system?
Any standard that shares the Annex SL structure is a natural fit. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 are the usual starting trio, and ISO 50001 is a further example of a standard that can be combined with them. Where a standard uses a different structure, only partial integration may be realistic, so check the clause structure before committing to a single system.
