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

The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 brings into Irish law a European directive to standardise safety signs throughout the European Union. To overcome language barriers, meanings of signs are not conveyed by words but by other characteristics. The regulations set out minimum requirements for the provision of safety signs at work.

Where And When To Use Safety Signs

The rules oblige employers to provide safety signs anywhere in the workplace where other methods, properly considered, cannot deal satisfactorily with the risks. Safety signs are not a substitute for other methods of controlling a risk; they are to be used to supplement or reinforce other measures, such as engineering controls and safe systems of work, to help reduce risk further. For more comprehensive details on safety signs, click on the 'word' icon below.