SI 1996/341

The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996.

The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 are the Great Britain law that says what a workplace safety sign must look like: shape, colour and pictogram for prohibition, warning, mandatory, escape and fire-fighting signs. HSE's free guide L64 explains them.

Read on legislation.gov.uk

For signage and wayfinding

What it asks of your signs

01Every fire exit and escape route sign you specify in a workplace in Great Britain must follow the intrinsic features in Schedule 1: a white pictogram on a green rectangle or square for escape, white on red for fire-fighting equipment.
02A sign that says only 'Fire Exit' in words is not acceptable. HSE's L64 guidance says text may accompany a pictogram but cannot replace it.
03A directional arrow on its own is not a fire safety sign. It has to sit with the running figure pictogram to form the sign.
04Signs that need power must have a guaranteed emergency supply, so illuminated exit signs belong in the emergency lighting design.
05Avoid clutter: the Regulations warn against too many signs placed close together, and against red 'this way' arrows for equipment contradicting green escape arrows.
06In multi-occupied buildings the owner normally signs the common parts, and each occupier signs its own area. Agree the split early so the scheme reads as one system.

What the Regulations do

SI 1996/341 implements Council Directive 92/58/EEC in Great Britain. It places a duty on employers: where a risk assessment shows a risk that cannot be avoided or adequately reduced by other means, you must provide and maintain safety signs that meet Schedule 1. Schedule 1 runs to nine parts covering general requirements, signboards, containers and pipes, fire-fighting equipment, obstacles and traffic routes, illuminated signs, acoustic signals, verbal communication and hand signals.

The Regulations also catch fire safety signs. Where other law requires a fire safety sign, the same design rules apply. In England and Wales that duty mostly comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and in Scotland from the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. So the fire legislation tells you where a sign is needed and these Regulations tell you what it must look like.

HSE guidance L64

Safety signs and signals: Guidance on Regulations (L64) is free from HSE. The third edition was published in 2015 and updates references to legislation and to BS EN ISO 7010. It explains each sign category, gives example signs, and for fire safety signs points to BS 5499-4 and BS 5499-10 for application, size and siting. It says the fire exit sign should be displayed immediately above the exit opening where possible, and that signs with a directional arrow should be placed along the route wherever an exit cannot be seen.

L64 also notes that photoluminescent signs may have a role where light levels are poor, alongside proper illumination including emergency lighting.

Northern Ireland and Ireland

The 1996 Regulations do not extend to Northern Ireland. The parallel instrument is the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, SR 1996 No. 119, made under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and in operation from 1 May 1996. In Ireland the same Directive is transposed by Part 7, Chapter 1 of the General Application Regulations 2007, so a sign system designed to ISO 7010 can serve projects either side of the border.

Common mistakes

Reusing old text-only 'EXIT' signs or pre-ISO pictograms in a refurbishment without checking with the fire risk assessor.
Combining two safety messages in one sign, or adding unauthorised text to a safety sign.
Treating escape signs as part of the brand palette. Safety colours are fixed by law.

Editions and history

Regulation 6 allowed older fire safety signs to remain in use until 24 December 1998. HSE guidance L64 was first published in 1996, with a second edition in 2009 and the current third edition in 2015.

Sources checked

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.

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