Introduction to Fire Safety Management

➤ Post a notice stating the composition of the committee
and the workplace covered
➤ Establish a safety committee within three months of
receiving the written request.
Note: See previous section covering the Health and
Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996.
15.30 The Health and Safety (Safety
Signs and Safety Signals)
Regulations 1996 (SI 0341)
These regulations apply to all workplaces and to all
activities where people are employed but exclude
signs used in connection with transport or supply of
dangerous substances (see previous section covering
CHIP).
The regulations require employers to use safety
signs where there is a signifi cant risk to health and
safety that has not been avoided or controlled by other
methods required in relevant law, provided that use of
the sign can help reduce the risk.
Safety signs are not a substitute for other risk
control methods such as engineering controls and safe
systems of work but should be used to warn of any
remaining signifi cant risk or to instruct employees of the
measures they must take in relation to these risks.
Example use of safety signs
Signifi cant Safety sign Example
risk
Flammable Prohibition
materials sign– no
catching smoking
fi re
Contact Warning
with live sign –
electrical danger
systems or electricity
equipment
Outbreak Acoustic
of fi re signal –
fi re alarm
Summary of key legal requirements
15.30.1 Provision and maintenance of safety
signs
Where the employer’s risk assessment indicates that,
having adopted all appropriate techniques, the risks
cannot be adequately reduced except by the provision
of appropriate safety signs to warn or instruct of
the nature of the risks and of the protective measures
required, the employer must:
➤ Provide and maintain any appropriate safety sign and
➤ Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that any
appropriate hand signal or verbal communication is
used.
15.30.2 Information, instruction and training –
regulation 5
The employer must ensure that:
➤ They provide comprehensible and relevant information
to each of their employees on the measures to
be taken in connection with safety signs
➤ Each of their employees receives suitable and suffi -
cient training in the meaning of safety signs and the
measures to be taken in connection with the safety
signs.
15.30.3 Minimum requirements for safety signs
and signals
Schedule 1 to the Regulations specifi es the minimum
requirements covering colour, shapes and symbols to
be used in safety signs as illustrated below:
Example safety signs
Type Example Meaning
Prohibition No
sign smoking
Warning Flammable
sign material
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