diff --git a/scripts/annotate-license.sh b/scripts/annotate-license.sh
index 36c660769c0bbeb92c098530129014d4370c35bc..c79d90d434aa1ff3381e0f5bf853af550d2ed2e5 100755
--- a/scripts/annotate-license.sh
+++ b/scripts/annotate-license.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023 Arm Limited and/or its affiliates <open-source-office@arm.com>
 #
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 # If any changes has been made as a result of running this script the user will
 # be asked to add changes to commit.
 
+set -eu
+
 RED='\033[0;31m'
 GREEN='\033[0;32m'
 NC='\033[0m' # No Color
@@ -30,19 +32,19 @@ LICENSE="Apache-2.0"
 # unrecognised formats
 annotate() {
     local file=$1
-    out=$(reuse annotate -c "$COPYRIGHT" --license "$LICENSE" --merge-copyrights $file 2> >(cat))
+    out=$(reuse annotate -c "$COPYRIGHT" --license "$LICENSE" --merge-copyrights "$file" 2> >(cat))
     if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
         echo -e "${RED}Failed to annotate $file, enforcing c-style comment${NC}"
-        reuse annotate -c "$COPYRIGHT" --license "$LICENSE" --merge-copyrights --style c $file
+        reuse annotate -c "$COPYRIGHT" --license "$LICENSE" --merge-copyrights --style c "$file"
     else
-        echo $out
+        echo "$out"
     fi
 }
 
 UNSTAGED=$(git diff --name-only)
 STAGED=$(git diff --cached --name-only)
 for file in $STAGED; do
-    annotate $file
+    annotate "$file"
 done
 
 # Run license check on the entire codebase