CSCS Safety Signs & Signals Questions
Prohibition, warning, mandatory and safe-condition signs used on site.
Safety Signs & Signals — practice questions (untimed, instant feedback)
- 8 questions · pass mark 90%
- Untimed practice — you see the correct answer immediately after each question.
- Some questions need more than one answer — these are clearly marked.
All 8 Safety Signs & Signals questions and answers
These are the same 8 questions as the practice test above, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. A round blue sign shows a worker wearing a hard hat. What does it mean?
Answer: Head protection must be worn
- A) Dispose of damaged helmets here
- B) Only white helmets are permitted
- C) Take helmets off in this area
- D) Head protection must be worn (correct answer)
Why: A round blue sign is mandatory — here it means head protection must be worn.
2. What do green and white safety signs indicate?
Answer: A safe condition, such as a route or facility
- A) A mandatory action you must take
- B) Something you must not do
- C) A safe condition, such as a route or facility (correct answer)
- D) A warning about a hazard
Why: Green and white signs show safe conditions — for example fire exits, first aid or assembly points.
3. A green sign shows a white cross. What does it mean?
Answer: First aid
- A) Hospital accident and emergency
- B) Emergency assembly point
- C) Fire point
- D) First aid (correct answer)
Why: A white cross on a green background is the standard first-aid sign.
4. What colour are fire-equipment signs?
Answer: Red
- A) Red (correct answer)
- B) Blue
- C) Yellow
- D) Green
Why: Fire-equipment signs are red.
5. What shape is a prohibition sign?
Answer: A circle with a diagonal line through it
- A) A circle with a diagonal line through it (correct answer)
- B) A triangle
- C) A rectangle
- D) A plain circle
Why: Prohibition signs are a red circle with a red diagonal bar — 'you must not'.
6. What does a mandatory sign usually show?
Answer: A white pictogram on blue
- A) An exclamation mark
- B) A white pictogram on blue (correct answer)
- C) A cross
- D) Text only
Why: Mandatory signs use a white symbol on a blue background — 'you must'.
7. Which describes a mandatory sign?
Answer: A blue circle
- A) A red triangle
- B) A white cross
- C) A blue circle (correct answer)
- D) A green square
Why: A blue circle marks a mandatory action you must carry out.
8. Which sign would you expect near a high-noise area?
Answer: Wear ear protection
- A) Wear ear protection (correct answer)
- B) No entry
- C) Slippery surface
- D) First-aid kit
Why: A high-noise zone carries a mandatory 'wear ear protection' sign.
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 timed 50-question mock under exam conditions, then book your CITB HS&E test.