The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 2001

Provision and maintenance of safety signs

5.—(1) This regulation shall apply if the risk assessment made under regulation 7(1) of the General Duties Regulations indicates that the employer concerned, having adopted all appropriate techniques for collective protection, and measures, methods or procedures used in the organisation of work, cannot avoid or adequately reduce risks to workers except by the provision of appropriate safety signs to warn or instruct, or both, of the nature of those risks and the measures to be taken to protect against them.

(2) Where this regulation applies, the employer shall—

(a) ensure that there is in place an appropriate safety sign in accordance with the requirements set out in Annexes I to VII of the Directive;

(b) subject to paragraph (5), in accordance with the requirements of Annexes I, VIII and IX of the Directive, ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that any appropriate hand signal or verbal communication described in those Parts is used; and

(c) maintain any appropriate safety sign (other than a hand signal or verbal communication) which he is required to ensure is in place.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1), risks shall only be treated as having been adequately reduced if, having adopted the appropriate techniques, measures, methods or procedures referred to in that paragraph, there is no longer a significant risk of harm having regard to the magnitude and nature of the risks arising from the work concerned.

(4) Without prejudice to paragraph (1), sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (2) shall also apply in relation to fire safety signs where they are required to comply with the provisions of any enactment (whether in an Act or instrument).

(5) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (2), the appropriate hand signal described in the documents specified in the Schedule to these Regulations shall be an alternative to the corresponding hand signal described in paragraph 3 of Annex IX of the Directive.

(6) Where it is appropriate to provide safety signs in accordance with paragraph (1) because at a place of work there is a risk to the health and safety of any worker in connection with the presence or movement of traffic, the appropriate safety sign required under paragraph (2) shall be in accordance with the requirements prescribed in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 1994(1), whether or not that instrument applies to the place of work.

(1)

S.I. 1994/1519.