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.
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