Glossary
Quality, safety & compliance, in plain English
The quality, workplace safety and information security terms you will meet in any industry — defined clearly, without the jargon.
- Audit Trail Information Security
- A secure, time-stamped, tamper-evident record of who did what and when within a system. Essential for compliance, investigations and demonstrating accountability to regulators.
- CAPA Quality
- Corrective and Preventive Action. A structured process for investigating problems (corrective action) and eliminating their causes to stop recurrence (preventive action), central to any mature quality system.
- Data Protection Impact Assessment Information Security
- A DPIA is a process to identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project. It is a legal requirement under UK GDPR for high-risk processing of personal data.
- Document Control Quality
- The disciplined management of policies, procedures and records — ensuring the right version is in use, changes are tracked, and obsolete documents are withdrawn.
- HSE Regulatory
- The Health and Safety Executive — the UK regulator for workplace health and safety. It sets expectations for risk assessment, incident reporting (RIDDOR) and safe systems of work across all industries.
- Internal Audit Quality
- A planned, independent check of whether processes are being followed and are effective. Internal audits identify gaps before external assessors or regulators do.
- ISO 13485 Quality
- The quality management standard for medical devices and similarly regulated products. It aligns with ISO 9001 but adds requirements for regulatory compliance, risk management and traceability across the product lifecycle.
- ISO 14001 Regulatory
- The international standard for environmental management systems. It provides a framework for managing environmental responsibilities, legal compliance and continual improvement of environmental performance.
- ISO 27001 Information Security
- The international standard for information security management systems (ISMS). It provides a framework for managing the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information through risk-based controls.
- ISO 45001 Safety
- The international standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It helps organisations reduce workplace injuries and ill health through leadership, worker participation and risk-based controls.
- ISO 9001 Quality
- The international standard for quality management systems (QMS). It sets out the criteria for consistently meeting customer and regulatory requirements and continually improving processes across an organisation.
- Management Review Quality
- A formal, periodic review by senior leadership of how well the quality management system is performing, using data such as audits, KPIs, complaints and CAPAs to drive improvement.
- Near Miss Safety
- An unplanned event that could have caused injury, damage or loss but did not. Consistently recording and reviewing near misses is one of the most effective ways to prevent serious incidents.
- Non-conformance Quality
- A failure to meet a specified requirement, standard or procedure. Non-conformances are logged, investigated and resolved, often triggering a CAPA where the root cause needs addressing.
- Risk Register Quality
- A living record of identified risks, their likelihood and impact, the controls in place and the owner responsible. It underpins proactive risk management across an organisation.
- Root Cause Analysis Quality
- A systematic method for identifying the underlying reason a problem occurred, rather than just its symptoms, so that corrective actions genuinely prevent it happening again.
- Safety Huddle Safety
- A short, focused team meeting — often at the start of a shift — where staff review safety concerns, incidents and operational risks for the day ahead. Huddles surface issues early and keep safety front of mind in any workplace.
- Toolbox Talk Safety
- A brief, informal safety briefing delivered to a team before work begins, focused on a specific hazard or task. Common in construction, manufacturing and logistics.
- Traceability Quality
- The ability to follow the history, application or location of an item or activity through recorded information — vital in manufacturing, supply chains and regulated processes.
- UKCA / CE Marking Regulatory
- Conformity marks showing a product meets UK or EU regulatory requirements. Achieving them typically depends on a controlled quality system, technical documentation and traceable evidence.