What is BS EN 1838:2024?

BS EN 1838:2024 is the British and European Standard that sets out the lighting performance requirements for emergency lighting in buildings.

In simple terms, it deals with questions such as:

• How much emergency light is required?
• Which areas need to be illuminated?
• How should escape routes be lit?
• How visible do safety signs need to be?
• What lighting is needed in open areas and high-risk areas?
• What happens if people are allowed to remain in a building during a normal lighting failure?

It is one of the key standards that sits alongside BS 5266-1:2025, the main UK code of practice for emergency lighting.

BS EN 1838:2024 replaced BS EN 1838:2013 in December 2024.

What Does BS EN 1838 Cover?

BS EN 1838 specifies the luminous requirements for emergency escape lighting and standby lighting.

It applies principally to buildings and locations where workers or members of the public may be present.

The standard covers areas including:

• Emergency escape routes
• Emergency exits
• Open areas
• Safety signs
• High-risk task areas
• Standby lighting
• Local area lighting
• Required illuminance levels
• Visibility and glare

While BS 5266-1 explains how emergency lighting should be applied within UK premises, BS EN 1838 provides much of the detail concerning the actual lighting performance that needs to be achieved.

How Does BS EN 1838 Relate to BS 5266-1?

The standards work together.

A useful way of looking at them is:

BS 5266-1:2025 provides the UK code of practice for emergency lighting.

BS EN 1838:2024 sets out the lighting performance requirements.

For example, BS 5266-1 may identify that an escape route requires emergency lighting, while BS EN 1838 provides requirements relating to the illumination that needs to be achieved.

The 2025 revision of BS 5266-1 specifically reflects changes made to both BS EN 1838 and BS EN 50172.

What Changed in BS EN 1838:2024?

BS EN 1838:2024 replaced the previous 2013 edition and introduced several notable changes.

The Full Width of Escape Routes Is Now Considered

One of the most significant changes concerns the lighting of escape routes.

The previous approach placed greater emphasis on illumination along the centre line of an escape route.

The 2024 standard now requires the illumination requirements to consider the total width of escape routes, including corridors and routes through open areas.

This provides a more realistic approach to how people actually use an escape route.

During an evacuation, occupants do not necessarily walk neatly along the centre line of a corridor.

Escape Routes Through Open Areas

The procedure for dealing with escape routes passing through larger open areas has also been revised.

This helps ensure that a route remains identifiable and adequately illuminated even where there is no conventional corridor or clearly defined physical pathway.

Local Area Lighting Has Been Introduced

The 2024 standard also introduces requirements relating to local area lighting.

This is relevant where occupants may be permitted to remain temporarily within a building when the normal lighting supply fails.

Traditionally, emergency lighting has often been thought of simply as:

Normal lighting fails → everybody evacuates.

That is not necessarily how every modern building operates.

Some buildings may have areas where occupants can safely remain during a temporary lighting failure.

Local area lighting provides sufficient illumination for people to remain and move safely within those areas.

This concept has also been incorporated into BS 5266-1:2025.

Does BS EN 1838 Tell You Where Emergency Lights Must Be Installed?

Not quite.

This is an important distinction.

BS EN 1838 is primarily concerned with lighting performance, rather than simply producing a list of locations where an emergency luminaire must be installed.

Emergency lighting design considers both:

• Where emergency lighting is required
• Whether the installed lighting provides adequate illumination

This is why simply counting emergency lights is not a reliable way of assessing whether a system is suitable.

A corridor containing several emergency luminaires may still fail to provide adequate illumination if they are poorly positioned or unsuitable for the space.

Conversely, modern luminaires with appropriate photometric performance may illuminate a larger area than older equipment.

Do Health and Safety Managers Need to Know BS EN 1838?

A health and safety manager, facilities manager or duty holder does not normally need to become an expert in emergency lighting calculations.

The detailed design work should be undertaken by someone competent to design and specify emergency lighting systems.

However, duty holders should understand what BS EN 1838 is and why it matters.

BSI itself identifies safety professionals, responsible persons and facilities managers among the intended users of the standard.

You should therefore understand that emergency lighting needs to achieve measurable performance requirements.

It is not sufficient simply to confirm that emergency lights are physically present.

What Should a Duty Holder Be Checking?

A duty holder does not normally need to measure emergency lighting levels personally.

However, you should be able to establish that:

• The emergency lighting system has been appropriately designed
• Escape routes and relevant areas are covered
• Emergency lighting has been properly commissioned
• The system is regularly tested and maintained
• Required records are being kept
• Significant changes to the layout or use of the building trigger a review
• Defects identified during testing are rectified

If a building undergoes refurbishment, walls are moved, racking is installed or escape routes change, the original emergency lighting design may no longer provide the required performance.

This is one reason emergency lighting should be considered whenever the layout or use of premises changes.

Is BS EN 1838 a Legal Requirement?

BS EN 1838 is a British Standard rather than legislation.

UK fire safety legislation places duties on those responsible for premises to provide appropriate fire precautions, which can include suitable emergency lighting.

Standards such as BS EN 1838 and BS 5266-1 provide recognised technical guidance that can be used to demonstrate that emergency lighting has been appropriately designed and installed.

The distinction is important:

Legislation creates the duty.

British Standards provide recognised technical guidance on how that duty can be satisfied.

Do I Need to Buy BS EN 1838?

For most general health and safety managers or building duty holders, probably not.

If you are designing, specifying, commissioning or carrying out technical assessments of emergency lighting systems, access to the standard is considerably more important.

For someone managing a premises, the important thing is to understand:

• What the standard does
• Whether the people designing and maintaining your system are competent
• Whether your system has been properly commissioned
• Whether testing and maintenance are being carried out correctly
• Whether changes to the building could affect the original emergency lighting design

You do not need to become a lighting designer to manage emergency lighting effectively.

Summary

BS EN 1838:2024 sets the lighting performance requirements for emergency lighting in buildings.

It works alongside BS 5266-1:2025 and deals with matters such as escape-route illumination, open areas, safety signs, local area lighting and standby lighting.

The 2024 edition introduced important changes, including consideration of the full width of escape routes rather than concentrating primarily on the centre line, together with revised treatment of escape routes through open spaces and the introduction of local area lighting.

For most duty holders and health and safety managers, there is no need to understand the detailed lighting calculations contained within the standard.

What you should understand is that emergency lighting must do more than simply switch on when the power fails.

It must provide adequate illumination, in the right places, for the people and risks present within the building.