With the best will in the world, I do sometimes sense that some of my clients find the requirements of health & safety signage a bit unnecessary at times. Is it really necessary to display a “fire exit” sign above the only way out of the building? Is it really necessary to display “fire route” signage pointing people down stairs (rather than up)?… and is it really necessary to display a “no smoking” sign, stating “it is against the law to smoke in these premises” at every entrance to the building?
Well, the good news is that in line with the government’s desire to reduce the burden on small business of excessive health & safety demands, some of the signage requirements have now been relaxed, and a more common-sense approach will now satisfy legal requirements.
A new set of Regulations have been published called The Smoke-free (Signs) Regulations 2012, which have replaced the Smoke-free (Signs) Regulations 2007. The major change in the new Regulations is that it is now no longer necessary to display a no-smoking sign of a specific size, shape and content at each entrance to the smoke-free premises. It is now only necessary to display at least one legible no-smoking sign within smoke-free premises, of any size, shape or content.
As far as fire exit and fire route signage is concerned, this has to comply with the requirements of the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. These Regulations are specific in requiring pictogram signage of certain shape, size and colour. The location of these signs should be determined within the fire risk assessment for your premises, which should be carried out by a competent person.
If a building is very small with a very simple layout, then a reasonable fire risk assessor should take this into account, apply common sense and not require fire exit or fire route signage to be displayed. If however, there could potentially be any uncertainty as to the best way out of a building during a fire evacuation, then conforming signage should be displayed.
If your premises is in need of a fire risk assessment to be carried out by a competent risk assessor, applying common sense, please visit clearworld.co.uk. For a 10% discount, please mention DOHR at the time of booking.
Haydn Glick (Tech IOSH), Clearworld Health & Safety Ltd.
