BS 5499-10:2014+A1:2023
Guidance for the selection and use of safety signs and fire safety notices.
BS 5499-10 is the British guide to choosing, installing, positioning and maintaining safety signs that conform to ISO 3864-1 and ISO 7010, with an annex on fire safety notices such as fire action notices. Escape route signs are covered separately by BS 5499-4.
For signage and wayfinding
What it asks of your signs
- 01Use it for every safety sign that is not an escape route sign: prohibition, warning, mandatory and fire equipment signs.
- 02Annex A covers fire safety notices, the text-based notices such as fire action instructions that sit beside call points and in circulation areas.
- 03It applies to most premises, including the common parts of blocks of flats, but not private dwellings.
- 04HSE's L64 refers to it for good practice, including the point that an arrow alone is not a fire safety sign.
- 05Specify it together with BS 5499-4 so that the whole safety sign family follows one logic on mounting, size and siting.
Scope
BS 5499-10 gives guidance on the selection, installation, positioning and maintenance of safety signs that conform to BS ISO 3864-1 and BS EN ISO 7010. It excludes escape route signs, which belong to BS 5499-4, and water safety signs. Annex A deals with fire safety notices. It applies to most types of premises, excluding private domestic premises but including common access areas in multi-occupied dwellings.
How specifiers use it
The safety signs regulations tell you what a sign must look like. BS 5499-10 helps with the decisions the regulations leave open: which sign suits the hazard, how big it needs to be for the distance it is read from, where it sits so it is seen and not obscured, and how it is kept legible over time. HSE's L64 refers readers to it for application, size and siting, and to illustrate effective use of directional arrows with pictograms.
On a wayfinding scheme it is the reference that keeps the statutory layer consistent: fire extinguisher signs, fire action notices, mandatory door signs such as 'Fire door keep shut', and hazard warnings in plant areas.
Ireland and status
There is no Irish equivalent. In Ireland, the design rules come from Schedule 9 of the General Application Regulations and the HSA guide, and BS 5499-10 is often used as good practice. The current version is BS 5499-10:2014+A1:2023, published by BSI on 31 March 2023 and listed as current. It superseded BS 5499-10:2006.
Editions and history
BS 5499-10:2006 was superseded by BS 5499-10:2014 in 2014. Amendment 1 was published in 2023 and incorporated as BS 5499-10:2014+A1:2023.
Sources checked
- knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/guidance-for-the-selection-and-use-of-safety-signs-and-fire-safety-notices-1
- knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/bs-5499-10-a1-guidance-for-the-selection-and-use-of-safety-signs-and-fire-safety-notices
- intertekinform.com/en-us/standards/bs-5499-10-2006-282468_saig_bsi_bsi_524935
- hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l64.pdf
A summary in our own words, checked on 16 October 2026. It is not the document itself and not legal advice.
Equivalents and related
The same ground, elsewhere.
- Safety signs: Code of practice for escape route signingUK
- Graphical symbols: Safety colours and safety signs: Registered safety signsInternational
- Graphical symbols: Safety colours and safety signs, Part 1: Design principles for safety signs and safety markingsInternational
- The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996Great Britain · NI
- Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, Part 7 Chapter 1: Safety Signs at Places of WorkIreland
- Approved Document B: Fire safety, Volume 2: Buildings other than dwellingsEngland
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