VCA tests how a company organizes and applies safety, health, and environment in hazardous work activities. Since July 1, 2026, VCA 2026/6.1 applies, with an explicit must question about identifying relevant legislation and ensuring compliance. This requires a fixed working method that makes clear which obligations apply and how you comply with them.
The HSE Checklist Contractors (VCA) contains the requirements for VCA certification for companies. HSE stands for Safety, Health, and Environment.
For a VCA company certificate, you must show that your HSE approach aligns with the activities and is applied in practice. The HSE Checklist Contractors covers, among other things:
• HSE policy, responsibilities, and involvement of management;
• risks in activities and measures to control them;
• instructions, expertise, and consultation about safe working;
• preparation for emergencies and workplace inspections;
• occupational health care and inspections of work equipment;
• use of subcontractors and investigation of incidents.
The VCA must questions are mandatory components. For VCA* you must comply with all associated must questions. VCA** and VCA-P also have additional questions, of which a prescribed number must be positively assessed.
Which requirements apply depends on the level. In our article VCA* or VCA**: which level suits your company? you can read the differences.
VCA 2026/6.1 combines previous decisions and clarifications. Leadership skills, designated as VCA-LEI, are embedded in the scheme. Provisions about, among others, internal audits and documentation have also been clarified.
For the legislation component, must question 1.7 has been added. The system for monitoring and applying relevant legislation was already involved in the document review. With the new version, this is explicitly a must question in the checklist.
So this is a requirement within the certification scheme. Which legal obligations apply to your company must be determined separately.
What does the VCA standard require?
Must question 1.7 applies to VCA*, VCA**, and VCA-P. The standard requires two applied procedures:
- A procedure to identify and register the HSE legislation relevant and applicable for VCA.
- A procedure to ensure compliance with that legislation.
How do you make this practical and demonstrable?
A workable approach connects the legal obligations with execution. You can organize this in five steps:
- Identify - Determine which legislation applies to your activities, locations, and work.
- Assess - Translate the legislation into concrete obligations and assess how your company complies.
- Comply - Organize measures and assign responsibilities and actions.
- Record - Document the assessment and the accompanying substantiation, for example with inspection reports, instructions, or registrations.
- Keep up to date - Process changes in legislation and in your own organization and assess what you need to adjust.
These steps are a practical elaboration. Execution remains part of daily work. For example, when an obligation requires an inspection, that inspection must actually take place. The legislation register can then bring together the assessment and the associated report.
What does the auditor assess?
For must question 1.7, the checklist mentions the procedures for identification and registration and for ensuring compliance as documents. The standard requires these procedures to be applied.
At the initial certification audit, the auditor assesses both the documentation and the application of the HSE management system. Additional data may be requested. Therefore, ensure you can explain how your working method is carried out and what documentation belongs to it.
Is a legislation register mandatory?
The standard requires that relevant HSE legislation is identified and registered. It does not prescribe a specific legislation register or software package.
A legislation register is a practical way to organize that registration. You can bring together obligations, assessments, responsibilities, and substantiation in it. The value lies in the combination of an appropriate overview and a working method with which you demonstrably comply with HSE legislation.
Lexerta supports setting up HSE compliance, with a legislation register in Pharius. For tracking and interpreting changes, you can use managing HSE compliance.
Since July 1, 2026, initial audits, periodic control audits, and recertification audits are conducted according to VCA 2026/6.1. This applies to companies starting and companies with an existing VCA company certificate.
No formal transition period has been established. An existing VCA company certificate based on VCA 2017/6.0 remains valid under the usual certification conditions. So you do not have to immediately start a new certification process solely because of the new version. At the next audit, you will be assessed against VCA 2026/6.1.
Both VCA and ISO 45001 relate to safe and healthy working. Parts of the requirements overlap, for example around policy, internal audits, communication, and management review. However, they are separate certification schemes with their own requirements.
VCA contains concrete prescriptions for how contractors organize safety, health, and environment. ISO 45001 sets requirements for a complete management system for healthy and safe working. The organization determines which measures are necessary based on its risks.
Do you already have a VCA company certificate? Then you may be able to use existing working methods and documents when setting up ISO 45001. You must separately assess which additional requirements apply and what you still need to organize. VCA certification therefore does not mean you also comply with ISO 45001.
Conversely, an ISO 45001 certificate does not yield a VCA company certificate. Does your client require VCA? Then check the required level. Whether the client accepts ISO 45001 as an alternative must be explicitly agreed.
Do you want to set up a management system for healthy and safe working? View our service Setting up a management system.
Check how you have set up must question 1.7. Can you show which HSE legislation applies, how you assess whether you comply, and who performs any actions? Also look at how you process changes and keep the substantiation.
Lexerta and Pharius support this component. We help map relevant legislation and record obligations in a legislation register. In Pharius you can record responsibilities, actions, and substantiation. Your organization remains responsible for execution and actually complying with the obligations.
Do you want to set up this approach for your company? View setting up HSE compliance and discuss with us what support you need.
