Safety Helmet Colours

Build UK’s Objective

To achieve a common safety helmet colour standard to realise the following benefits:

• A single standard that can be adopted by all contractors. At present contractors specify different requirements on helmets as there is no industry agreed standard.

• More clearly identifying peoples roles through helmet colour which indicates the level of responsibility on site. It fosters pride in the wearing of a specific hat colour as a badge of responsibility.

• Reduced costs as companies will no longer have to buy different coloured helmets for different jobs.

 Background

There are currently a number of different approaches to safety helmet colours:

• Research has found that while most sites / contractors have a policy on helmet colours, sites / contractors were often implementing different approaches

• Individual contractors have introduced job identified safety helmet colours in their PPE Standard.

• Network Rail has specific requirements regarding safety helmet colours on or near the line side (white for general use or blue for inexperienced people / visitors).

• This inconsistent approach is confusing and potentially dangerous.

• On smaller sites a colour standard may be impractical, in these cases we advise using a default colour of white as is general current practice.

Build UK which represents many construction contractors and trade bodies has produced an industry standard to address these issues. A hub collaborative working group representing contractors has agreed that there should be an aligned approach to this standard.

 Build UK Standard, Minimum requirements

Sites that adopt a helmet colour code for specific roles are to use the following colours from 1 January 2017. This guide aligns to Build UK and Network Rail requirements.

• Reflective markings and role specific helmet decals are permitted;.

• Coloured high visibility vests are permitted to identify other roles e.g. vehicle marshall

• Helmets must meet BS EN 397

• Network Rails PPE standard allows only white and blue helmets

Helmet Colours :

1. Black : Site Supervisors
2. Orange : Slinger / Signaller
3. Blue : Inexperienced Person / Visitor
4. White : General Use (Including sites wherecolour coding impractical), Manager, Client, Competent Operative

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