The problem
The LEV test is overdue and nobody noticed
The extraction has been running fine, the last test report is in a drawer, and the 14-month date went past in the spring. Why it happens and what to do next.
The extraction over the welding bay has been running every day. Nobody has complained. The last report from the testing company is in the site file somewhere, and it said everything passed. So when the insurer, or the HSE inspector, or the new operations manager asks when the LEV was last thoroughly examined and tested, the honest answer is a pause and then "I'll have to check".
The check finds a date more than 14 months ago. The system has been legally overdue since spring and nobody knew.
How the date gets missed
Local exhaust ventilation fails quietly. A hood that used to capture the fume still looks like it is working. The fan still makes the same noise. Filters clog slowly. The only way to know the system still protects the person standing at it is to measure it, which is the point of the thorough examination and test.
Because nothing visibly breaks, nothing prompts anyone to book the next test. The reminder lives with whoever arranged the last one, and that person has changed jobs, or the testing company they used has stopped answering the phone, or the date was written in a diary that got replaced in January.
COSHH Regulation 9 puts the duty on the employer. The interval is at least once every 14 months for most LEV, and shorter for a handful of processes listed in the regulation's Schedule 4. The record of each examination has to be kept for five years. None of that is new, and none of it is hard. It is just easy to forget when the plant appears to be fine.
Finding someone to do it
The second half of the problem is finding a tester once you know you need one. A search returns company names with no sense of who covers your area, who has seen a system like yours, and who will answer this week. HSE is clear that the examiner needs to be competent, and that a training certificate on its own does not prove it. So the workplace has to ask questions, of more than one company.
Most people arranging LEV testing do it once every 14 months and are not specialists. They need a plain way to find local companies, describe the site once, and get answers they can compare.
The app built around this
LevHQ
Directory liveFind LEV testing companies and request quotes for a workplace.
Read before you buy
The longer read.
LEV testing: finding a competent examiner and keeping COSHH Regulation 9 records
The 14-month interval, the five-year record and the word competent all come from COSHH Regulation 9. This guide quotes the regulation, explains what HSE says about choosing an examiner, and sets out a record-keeping routine that survives an inspection.
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