NHBC’s Health and Safety Awards
Judging is underway for NHBC’s Health and Safety Awards, now in their seventh year, where house building sites across the UK compete to demonstrate excellence in health and safety standards. Ahead of this year’s awards, NHBC, the UK’s leading home warranty and insurance provider, is providing a handy guide on the key health and safety signs you are likely to see when visiting or working at a site.
If you’re viewing a new home before a site is complete, it is vital to understand the important messages site safety signs give – failing to abide by them could be harmful or even fatal.
Health and safety signs are used to provide visual aids, they come in all different shapes, colours and sizes and each has a specific safety rule or procedure attached to it.
So what do the different types of signs look like, and what do they mean? Here are a few of the most common health and safety signs you’re likely to come across:
A sign prohibiting behaviour likely to increase or cause danger – for example the ‘no access safety sign’ is used to tell employees or visitors that they should not go beyond a certain point will have a red circular band with diagonal cross bar on a white background, such as these:
A yellow triangle with a black border and symbol within the yellow area is giving a warning of a hazard. This is to warn employees or visitors that a potential hazard is present, such as these:
A mandatory sign prescribes a specific behaviour that must be done. These will have a blue circle with a white symbol, such as these:
A green and white signs indicate an area of safety, giving information on emergency exits, first aid or rescue facilities, such as these:
Tom Kitchen, NHBC’s Operations Manager said,
“For the last seven years NHBC has been awarding the UK’s safest house builders, celebrating and promoting the success of site managers in keeping a safe environment on site. The awards demonstrate the benefits of implementing good health and safety practices and highlight examples of good management.”
“Construction site safety signs are there for a reason – they deliver important information, to both workers and visitors, warning of hazards to watch out for or of requirements that must be obeyed. All safety signs have to conform to the Safety Signs Regulations and being familiar with the different types of signs helps people to stay safe”.
For more information on the NHBC Health and Safety Awards, visitwww.nhbc.co.uk/hsawards