The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has launched a BSI national standard for beach safety flags.

Flags must now carry the same meaning wherever they are flown, according to the new standard – Beach Safety Flags: Colour, Shape and Meaning – which is being launched at the National Water Safety Congress in Statford-upon-Avon today (9 October).

Peter Cornall, RoSPA’s head of leisure safety and chair of the BSI committee that produced the standard, said: “The new standard will mean that wherever you go in the UK and potentially in the world, flags will mean the same thing and they will be required to be used in the same way.

“For example, a red flag flying means a lifeguard has decided that it is unsafe to swim at that particular moment in time, rather than there are no lifeguards on duty or the lifeguard season has closed for the winter, as we have seen in the past.”

Members from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the Royal Life Saving Society and Sport England were also members of the BSI committee. Details: www.rospa.com