COSHH Regulation 9 Explained: Your Full LEV Testing and Maintenance Duties
Employers with local exhaust ventilation systems are frequently told they need a "14-month test." That is true, but it is only part of what COSHH Regulation 9 requires. The regulation creates three distinct, concurrent duties — maintenance, examination and testing, and record-keeping — and each operates independently of the others.
Understanding the full scope of the regulation matters. Satisfying one duty does not satisfy the others, and enforcement action can follow a breach of any of them.
What Is COSHH Regulation 9?
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, Regulation 9, is the provision that governs how employers must maintain and test the control measures they use to protect workers from hazardous substances. It applies to all control measures — not just LEV — but the requirements are most specific for LEV systems, because LEV performance can deteriorate in ways that are not obvious without testing.
Regulation 9 is best understood as three separate obligations that apply at all times to any LEV system you operate.
Obligation 1: Maintenance
Regulation 9(1) requires every LEV system (and other engineering control measure) to be:
"maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order, in good repair and in a clean condition."
This is a continuous duty. It is not satisfied by passing a TExT inspection. A system that achieved adequate face velocities on the day of its last examination can still fall into breach of this obligation if filters are subsequently allowed to overload, a fan belt wears through and is not replaced, or ductwork develops a significant air leak.
The three requirements in the obligation are each distinct:
Efficient state requires that the system actually controls exposure effectively. A system running with degraded performance — even if all components are intact — may fail this test.
Efficient working order requires all components to function correctly. It is not enough that the motor is running and air is moving; each element of the system must be performing its designed function.
Good repair requires defects to be fixed. Broken components, deteriorating flexible hoses, damaged filter media, corroded ductwork — these do not comply with Regulation 9(1) until they are repaired or replaced.
The practical implication for employers: you need a maintenance programme, not just a test schedule. Our guide to LEV servicing between examinations covers what that programme should include.
Obligation 2: Thorough Examination and Testing
Regulation 9(2) requires LEV systems to be thoroughly examined and tested by a competent person at defined intervals. The default interval for LEV is:
"at least once every 14 months, or for local exhaust ventilation plant used in conjunction with a process specified in Column 1 of Schedule 4, at not more than the interval specified in the corresponding entry in Column 2 of that Schedule."
The 14-Month Baseline
For most LEV systems, the maximum interval between thorough examinations is 14 months. In practice, many employers treat this as an annual target with a two-month buffer — scheduling testing each year and using the 14-month maximum as the outer boundary rather than the routine aim.
In practice, many employers schedule testing annually and treat the 14-month maximum as the outer boundary, not the target.
Schedule 4 — Shorter Intervals for Higher-Risk Processes
Certain processes pose a higher risk of acute harm from LEV failure, and Regulation 9 requires more frequent examination for LEV used in those processes. Schedule 4 lists the processes and their examination intervals:
| Process | Maximum examination interval |
|---|---|
| Metal casting blasting operations (in or incidental to cleaning of metal castings) | 1 month |
| Jute cloth manufacture | 1 month |
| Non-ferrous metal casting processes involving dust or fume | 6 months |
| Dry grinding, abrading, or polishing of metal articles (other than gold, platinum or iridium), using mechanical power, in any room for more than 12 hours in any week — not wet processes | 6 months |
If your LEV is used in connection with any of these processes, the baseline 14-month rule does not apply — the shorter Schedule 4 interval does.
The grinding and polishing entry is a common source of confusion. The statutory scope is narrower than it sounds: the 6-month interval applies only to dry mechanical grinding or polishing of metal articles (excluding gold, platinum, and iridium) carried out in a room for more than 12 hours in any week. A workshop that grinds metal for a few hours a week does not fall within Schedule 4 — the 14-month baseline applies to them. If your operation involves significant, high-throughput dry metal grinding or polishing, check whether your weekly room-hours exceed that threshold before determining your examination interval.
What "Thorough Examination and Test" Means
A thorough examination and test — the TExT — is not a visual inspection. It is a systematic examination of the system's performance, carried out by a competent person to the standard described in HSG258. At a minimum, it involves:
- Visual inspection of all components for condition and deterioration
- Measurement of airflow (face velocity, capture velocity, or transport velocity as appropriate) and comparison with the design specification
- Measurement of static pressure across the system
- Assessment of capture effectiveness in practice
The output is a formal written report. That report must include the findings, any defects, any action required, and a conclusion on whether the system is providing adequate control. You are required to keep that report.
Our guide on how to choose a competent LEV tester explains what qualifications to look for and what a compliant TExT report must contain.
Obligation 3: Record-Keeping
Regulation 9(4) requires:
"Every employer who carries out any examination and test of control measures… shall keep a suitable record, and that record or a suitable summary thereof shall be kept available for at least 5 years from the date on which it was made."
The regulation requires records to be kept not just of examinations and tests but of repairs as well. The five-year retention period runs from the date the record was made — so a TExT report from today must be kept until at least 2031.
A single record covering all your LEV systems, organised by system identifier, is acceptable provided it contains the required information. The record needs to be retrievable — on paper or digitally — without delay when the HSE asks for it.
What a complete record for each system should show:
- The system identifier (ideally matching a physical tag or label on the unit)
- The date of each TExT
- Who carried out the examination (name and competence)
- The findings, including measured performance data
- Any defects noted and the remedial action taken
- The date of any repairs and who carried them out
A missing record, or a record that covers only some systems, is a compliance failure in its own right — separate from whether the examinations themselves were carried out.
How Regulation 9 Relates to COSHH Regulation 7
Regulation 9 is the operational requirement. It tells you what you must do to keep your controls working. Regulation 7 is the underlying duty — it requires you to prevent or adequately control worker exposure to hazardous substances.
These two regulations interact. If your LEV fails the Regulation 9(1) maintenance standard and is no longer performing adequately, you are probably also in breach of your Regulation 7 duty, because adequate control has ceased. A prosecution under COSHH can cite both.
For more on how the regulations fit together, our guide on COSHH and LEV legal obligations covers the broader framework.
Common Compliance Gaps
Four patterns come up repeatedly in HSE enforcement action involving LEV:
Records not kept for five years. Employers who have testing carried out regularly but do not retain reports — particularly following changes in contractor, premises, or ownership — cannot demonstrate compliance when inspected. The test was done; the proof has gone.
No records of repairs. Most employers keep TExT reports but do not systematically record maintenance visits, filter replacements, and repairs. Regulation 9(4) requires repair records as well as examination records.
Schedule 4 not checked. Employers on metal grinding or non-ferrous casting operations who have assumed the 14-month baseline applies to them when Schedule 4 requires 6-monthly examination.
Maintenance treated as the contractor's job. The TExT contractor visits once a year (or once every 14 months) and that is treated as the entirety of the obligation. The ongoing Regulation 9(1) maintenance duty — daily, weekly, and planned — falls to the employer and is not covered by the annual test visit.
Checking Your Compliance
A quick self-assessment against the three obligations:
- Maintenance: Do you have a documented maintenance schedule for each LEV system? Are filter changes, fan checks, ductwork inspections, and cleaning recorded?
- Testing: Does each system have a current TExT report (within 14 months — or the appropriate Schedule 4 interval)? Has the competent person who carried it out been checked for relevant qualifications?
- Records: Are TExT reports and repair records held in a way that makes them retrievable? Do records go back at least five years?
Our LEV record-keeping requirements checker works through what you need to keep, for how long, and in what form. The LEV testing due date calculator uses your last TExT date to work out when your next one is due.
This guide is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. The statutory text of COSHH Regulation 9 is at legislation.gov.uk. For specific guidance on your obligations, consult a competent person.
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