A19: Health And Safety (Safety Signs And Signals) Regulations 1996

Definitions(r1)

‘Safety sign’ means a sign referring to a specific object, activity or situation and includes a signboard, a safety colour, an illuminated sign, an acoustic signal, a verbal communication or a hand signal;

‘signboard’ means a sign which provides information or instructions by a combination of geometric shape, colour and a symbol or pictogram and which is rendered visible by lighting of sufficient intensity;

‘verbal communication’ means a predetermined spoken message communicated by a human or artificial voice;

‘acoustic signal’ means a coded sound signal which is released and transmitted by a device designed for that purpose, without the use of a human or artificial voice.

These regulations do not apply to the supply of equipment or substances, the transport of dangerous goods or regulating of road, rail, waterborne or air traffic.

Provision and maintenance of safety signs(r4)

Safety signs shall be provided and maintained by the employer where a risk assessment (under the ‘Management’ regulations) shows that the employer –

cannot avoid or adequately control risks in other ways (having adopted all other preventative and protective measures); and
there is no longer a significant risk of harm occurring.

The signs should warn and/or instruct concerning the nature of the risks and the measures to be taken to protect against them and must (with certain exceptions) comply with the descriptions in schedule 1. A notable exception is for works traffic: where there is a traffic risk the appropriate sign under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 shall be used.

Information, instruction and training(r5)

Every employer shall –

provide employees with comprehensible and relevant information on what to do in relation to safety signs; and
ensure that employees receive suitable and sufficient instruction and training in the meaning of safety signs.