COSHH, law & TExT
A report that says pass can still be telling you to act - the useful information often lives in the recommendations, not the verdict.
The short answer
An LEV test report records a pass or fail, but the verdict is only the headline. The parts that change what you do are the remedial actions and the next test due date, and those often sit below a pass. A system can pass overall while the report quietly recommends a filter change, a hood re-position or a repair before performance slips. Reading only the top line is how genuine warnings get missed.
The detail
A pass means the examiner judged the system - hood by hood - still able to control exposure at source, with measured airflow within the benchmarks set at commissioning. A fail means at least one part is not doing that. Because the assessment is per capture point, a report can show some hoods passing and others failing on the same system, which is why a single overall word never tells the whole story.
Where a defect prevents effective control, HSG258 supports a visible failed label - typically red - on the affected hood, and an emergency written report. The triage principle is blunt: any defect that stops the system controlling exposure means the affected process should stop until it is put right, rather than run on a technicality.
What it means for you
The genuine grey areas are where judgement comes in. A system may pass yet show a downward trend across successive tests - still inside the benchmark, but heading the wrong way; a good report flags that so you act before the next test fails. Another common one is a missing commissioning baseline: with no original figures to measure against, the examiner has to judge performance against design intent or professional expectation, and must say so - that absence is itself a finding.
There is also the difference between a numerical pass and real-world control. Airflow can read acceptably while a hood is poorly positioned for the task, so capture is worse than the numbers suggest. This is why the examiner's competence and their written comments matter as much as the measured values.
Treat the report as a set of instructions, not a certificate to file. Close out every action, note the due date, and keep it with the logbook so the trend across years is visible at a glance.
The service behind the guide
We report per hood with clear actions, a stated due date and plain comments on any grey areas - and we are happy to review a report you already hold and tell you what it is really saying.
Questions
That the examiner judged the system still able to control exposure at source, with airflow within the benchmarks set at commissioning. It is assessed per hood, so a report can show some capture points passing and others not.
Yes. A pass often comes with remedial actions - a filter change, a repair, a hood re-position - recommended before performance slips. The actions and the next due date are the parts of the report that should drive what you do.
HSG258 supports a visible failed label, usually red, on a hood where a defect prevents effective control, together with an emergency report. The affected process should stop until the system is made safe.
The examiner judges performance against design intent or professional expectation and states that in the report. The missing baseline is itself a finding, and the fix is a new baseline assessment so future tests have a reference point.
Yes - test records must be kept for at least five years, and keeping them together lets you see performance trends across successive tests, which is where early warnings of a declining system show up.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Our reports say plainly what passed, what failed, what to do and when you are next due - no decoding required. Call or email for a quote or a second opinion on an existing report.