This section gives you a quick overview on the law concerning the display of safety signs in the workplace.

Q. In some safety product catalogues there seem to be different styles of green and white emergency signs - can we use a combination of these different styles?

A. It is good practice to ensure that there is a consistency in the type of signs used (ie the pictogram style) across the wholeof any single work site.

Q. Where can I get safety signs from?

A. There are a number of suppliers of safety signs, who produce catalogues of a huge variety of signs available from them. Safety signs purchased from a reputable supplier should comply with the Safety Signs Regulations and relevant British Standards.

Q. What is meant by oral communications?

A. Oral communications are defined in the Safety Signs Regulations as "predetermined messages spoken by a human or artificial voice". Oral communications will often contain codes, which both the giver and receiver of instructions must understand before they are used to deal with a hazardous situation. In many cases, the code will be relatively basic, eg using words like "start", "stop", "higher" or "lower".

Q. We have a dangerous machine in our workplace. Is providing safety sign enough to fulfil our legal duties?

A. No. Safety signs are very limited. They rely on people understanding them, noticing them and complying with them. They are only effective if used in conjunction with a range of other safety measures, to protect your employees against the dangers of the machine. This means that not only should you put up a safety sign, but you must guard dangerous parts of the machine, train anyone who uses it, provide adequate supervision to ensure the machine is used safely, have procedures for the safe use of the machine, such as tying back hair and removing loose clothes and jewellery where there is a risk of entanglement, regularly check and maintain the machine, provide appropriate personal protective equipment, and so on.