To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proposals her Department has to introduce regulations which would require safety-at-work notices to be in a particular colour.

The Safety Signs Regulations 1980 require safety signs, which are defined as signs using shapes, symbols and colours to convey health and safety information, which are used at work, to conform to certain general rules regarding their shape and colour. These regulations implement EC directive 77/576/EEC.The Health and Safety Commission is currently preparing proposals to implement EC directive 92/58/EEC on the minimum requirements for health and/or safety signs at work. This directive replaces 77/576/EEC. It maintains the same general rules concerning the colour and shape of signs of the earlier directive. However, it also specifically requires safety signs to be used wherever there are risks to health and safety which cannot be controlled adequately by other means. The directive has to be implemented by 24 June 1994.