As indicated in the document SAPOCO/42, which defines the Safety Policy at CERN, Safety rules have mandatory force. These documents apply to all persons under the Director General's authority, including contractors and users.

Safety rules follow a new classification based on four types of documents:

  • Safety Regulations (SR);
  • Safety Plans and Safety Procedures (SP);
  • General Safety Instructions (GSI);
  • Specific Safety Instructions (SSI).

A detailed description of this new classification can be found on the following web page Structure of the new Safety rules.

During the transition phase, the existing rules, already classified under the old denominations (Safety Codes, Safety Instructions, Safety Notes, ....) remain temporarily in force, until their revision or transcription into the new rules.

Access to the Safety rules in force has been reorganized by domains of Safety, in order to make the applicable rules easier to find:

Safety rules classified by domain.

It is also possible to access:

  • the Safety rules by type of document.
  • Also a list of essential HSE referenced documents is on the CERN intranet at: https://cern.ch/safety-rules/HSE-Regulatory-Watch.htm.


    Texts and abstracts on these web pages are for information only. Only the Safety rules are legally binding.

    Copyright CERN - European Organisation for Nuclear Research.