CSCS Safety Signs & Signals Questions
Prohibition, warning, mandatory and safe-condition signs used on site.
These questions cover safety signs & signals for the CITB Health, Safety and Environment (HS&E) test, the exam UK construction workers pass to get a CSCS card.
Safety Signs & Signals: practice quiz
- 20 questions · 30 minutes · pass mark 90%
- Answers and explanations are shown at the end, with every question to review.
- A fresh 20 questions every time, drawn from all 145 in this topic's bank. Includes 2 select-two questions and 6 picture questions, as in the real test.
- About 90 seconds a question, against about 54 in the real test, so there is time to think.
10 sample Safety Signs & Signals questions and answers
These 10 come from the 145 questions the practice quiz above draws from, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. What shape and colours does a prohibition signboard use?
Answer: Round, with a black pictogram on white, red edging and a diagonal bar
- A) Round, with a black pictogram on white, red edging and a diagonal bar (correct answer)
- B) Triangular, with a black pictogram on a yellow background and black edging
- C) Square, with a white pictogram on a red background covering half the sign
- D) Round, with a white pictogram on a blue background covering half the sign
Why: Schedule 1 Part II sets prohibitory signs as round, black pictogram on white, with red edging and a diagonal line, the red taking up at least 35% of the area.
2. How must traffic routes be marked?
Answer: Permanently, using a safety colour along the length of the route
- A) With warning signboards placed at the two ends of the route on site
- B) Permanently, using a safety colour along the length of the route (correct answer)
- C) With a mandatory blue sign at the points where the route changes
- D) In places where vehicles and pedestrians are not otherwise kept apart
Why: Part I states that traffic routes must be permanently marked with a safety colour, separately from the requirement to mark obstacles and drops.
3. What proportion of a prohibition sign must be red?
Answer: At least 35% of the area of the sign, including the edging and the bar
- A) At least 50%, which is the same proportion as the blue on a mandatory sign
- B) At least 25%, since the pictogram itself must remain clearly visible
- C) At least 35% of the area of the sign, including the edging and the bar (correct answer)
- D) The whole background, with the pictogram left in white on top of it
Why: Prohibition signs require the red part to take up at least 35% of the area. Mandatory, warning, escape and fire-fighting signs all use at least 50% of their colour.
4. Signboards on containers and pipes must be placed how?
Answer: As laid down in Part III of the Schedule, which deals with them directly
- A) Wherever the site finds it most convenient during the fitting-out stages
- B) At both ends of a pipe run, regardless of what the pipe actually carries
- C) As laid down in Part III of the Schedule, which deals with them directly (correct answer)
- D) Where the contents are flammable liquids, and not for other substances
Why: Part I paragraph 2.1.2 points to Part III, which sets the requirements for signs on containers and pipes carrying dangerous substances.
5. What is a 'safety colour' under the Regulations?
Answer: A colour to which a meaning is assigned
- A) A fluorescent colour used on high-visibility clothing
- B) A colour chosen to match the company's site branding
- C) A colour to which a meaning is assigned (correct answer)
- D) Any bright colour that is easy to see in poor light
Why: Regulation 2(1) defines a safety colour as a colour to which a meaning is assigned. The meanings of red, yellow or amber, blue and green are set out in Schedule 1.
6. When must illuminated signs and acoustic signals be checked to make sure they work?
Answer: Before they are put into service, and at frequent enough intervals after that
- A) Before they are put into service, and at frequent enough intervals after that (correct answer)
- B) Only when a worker reports that one of them seems to have stopped working
- C) Once, when the site first opens, with no further checks needed after that
- D) Only after a real emergency, once the signal has been used for the first time
Why: Schedule 1 Part I paragraph 10 says they must be checked to ensure they function correctly and are effective before being put into service and then at sufficiently frequent intervals.
7. Schedule 1 lists a 'general mandatory sign'. What does it say about how that sign is used?
Answer: It is to be accompanied, where necessary, by another sign
- A) It is used to mark where the first-aid kits are kept
- B) It is to be accompanied, where necessary, by another sign (correct answer)
- C) It replaces all the other mandatory signs used on a site
- D) It is for indoor use only and must not be fixed outdoors
Why: Schedule 1 Part II paragraph 3.3 lists the general mandatory sign with the note that it is to be accompanied where necessary by another sign.
8. A fire extinguisher is itself mostly red. Does the wall behind it also have to be painted red?
Answer: No. Where the equipment is mainly red, a red background can be unnecessary
- A) Yes. Fire equipment needs a red painted wall behind it by law in any case
- B) Yes, and the extinguisher must also carry a green sign to show its location
- C) No, because fire equipment needs no red colouring of any kind on it
- D) No. Where the equipment is mainly red, a red background can be unnecessary (correct answer)
Why: L64 paragraph 115 says location is normally shown by a signboard or a red background, but where the equipment itself is predominantly red there may be no need to colour the background red as well.
9. How loud must an acoustic signal be, under Schedule 1?
Answer: Considerably louder than ambient noise, without being excessive or painful
- A) Considerably louder than ambient noise, without being excessive or painful (correct answer)
- B) Quieter than the background noise, so that it does not startle anyone
- C) As loud as the equipment allows, even if it is painful to hear when close by
- D) Loud enough for the person who set it off to hear, wherever they stand
Why: Schedule 1 Part VII paragraph 1.1(a) says acoustic signals must be considerably higher than the ambient noise level, so they are audible without being excessive or painful.
10. How should a signaller be made easy for the operator to recognise?
Answer: Brightly coloured distinctive items, kept for signallers' use only
- A) By wearing the same clothing as the rest of the work gang
- B) By shouting their name to the operator before giving a signal
- C) Brightly coloured distinctive items, kept for signallers' use only (correct answer)
- D) By standing next to the operator's cab for the whole of the lift
Why: Schedule 1 Part IX paragraph 2.6 says the signaller wears distinctive items such as a jacket, helmet, sleeves or armbands, or carries bats, brightly coloured and for the exclusive use of signallers.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
Site signs follow a fixed code set out in Schedule 1 of the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. Shape and colour carry the meaning, so once you know the code you can read a sign you have never seen before. The test leans on exactly that, which is why so many questions describe a shape and a colour rather than showing you a picture.
- The four signboard families: prohibition, warning, mandatory and safe condition
- Fire equipment signs, and why red does two different jobs
- The colour code: red, yellow or amber, blue and green
- Reading an unfamiliar pictogram from its shape and background colour
- Yellow and black or red and white striping for obstacles and drops
- Hand signals for guiding plant, and the signaller's role
- Acoustic and verbal signals, including the evacuation signal
Key facts worth memorising
- Prohibition: you must not
- Round, black pictogram on white, with red edging and a red diagonal bar, and the red must cover at least 35 per cent of the sign.
- Warning: take care
- Triangular, black pictogram on a yellow background with black edging, and the yellow must cover at least 50 per cent of the sign.
- Mandatory: you must
- Round, white pictogram on blue. Nearly every PPE sign on site is this type, including head, eye and ear protection.
- Safe condition and fire equipment
- Both are rectangular or square. Green with a white pictogram means emergency escape or first aid, so a white cross on green is first aid. Red with a white pictogram identifies fire-fighting equipment.
- Striped hazard marking
- Places where you could collide with an obstacle or fall are marked with alternating yellow and black, or red and white, stripes set at roughly 45 degrees.
- The evacuation signal is continuous
- Schedule 1 requires the acoustic signal for evacuation to be continuous, and the hand signal for danger or emergency stop is both arms pointing upwards with the palms facing forwards.
What people get wrong
A red sign always means stop or do not.
Red also identifies fire-fighting equipment. A white pictogram on a solid red rectangle points you to an extinguisher or hose. The prohibition sign is the round one with the diagonal bar through it.
Blue signs are advice you can weigh up.
Blue circles are mandatory. They set out something you must do, and there is no discretion in them.
No sign means the rule does not apply.
The risk assessment and your briefing set the requirement, not the signage. If you were told to wear hearing protection and the sign is missing, wear it and tell your supervisor about the sign.
Putting up plenty of signs makes a site safer.
Signs are only required where a significant risk remains after every other control has been applied, and Schedule 1 says a signboard must be removed once the situation it refers to has ended. Too many signs, or ones that no longer apply, train people to ignore all of them.
Answering these questions in the test
Answer from shape and colour first, and only then look at the pictogram. Round and blue is you must. Round with a red diagonal is you must not. Triangle and yellow is take care. Rectangle and green is safe condition or the way out. Rectangle and red is fire equipment. Learning those five pairings answers most of this section on its own, and it works even when the symbol is one you have never seen. Where a question describes a missing sign, a damaged sign or a sign that contradicts your briefing, the option that lets you carry on regardless is always the wrong one.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated. Our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
Topics that come up alongside safety signs & signals
Ready for the real thing?
When you are scoring 90% or better here, take a CSCS mock test for Operatives under exam conditions, then how to book the CSCS test. Still under 90%? Try a CSCS practice quiz on another topic.