Lighting of escape routes

All escape routes, including external ones, must have sufficient lighting for people to see their way out safely. Emergency escape lighting may be needed if areas of the workplace are without natural daylight or are used at night.

Before providing emergency escape lighting, check the relevant parts of the workplace with the lights off to see whether there is sufficient borrowed light from other sources to illuminate the escape route, eg street lights or unaffected lighting circuits. Where you decide there is insufficient light, you will need to provide some form of emergency lighting. Emergency lighting needs to function not only on the complete failure of the normal lighting, but also on a localised failure if that would present a hazard.

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Emergency escape lighting should:
  • indicate the escape routes clearly;
  • provide illumination along escape routes to allow safe movement towards the final exits; and
  • ensure that fire alarm call points and fire-fighting equipment can be readily located.
In addition to emergency escape lighting, it may be necessary to provide other forms of emergency lighting for safety reasons, for example to ensure that manufacturing processes can be shut down safely. In smaller workplaces and outdoor locations with few people, the emergency escape lighting could take the form of battery-operated torches placed in suitable positions where employees can quickly get access to them in an emergency, eg on an escape route. In other cases, you should provide an adequate number of electrically operated emergency lighting units, installed to automatically come on if the power to the normal lighting supply circuit, which they are connected to, fails.

Emergency lighting units should be sited to cover specific areas, for example:
  • intersections of corridors;
  • at each exit door;
  • near each staircase so that each flight of stairs receives direct light;
  • close to a change in floor level;
  • outside each final exit;
  • by exit and safety signs that are required elsewhere following the risk assessment;
  • within lift cars;
  • near fire-fighting equipment; and
  • near each fire alarm call point.
The lighting units should be placed as low as possible but at least 2 metres above floor level (measured to the underside of the lighting unit). You may need to consider alternative mounting arrangements in areas where smoke could accumulate and make the lighting ineffective. Where it is considered that an electrical emergency lighting system is required, the system should be installed in accordance with British Standard 5266: Part 1.