Quality Assurance
" Having monitoring results available allowed us to understand the impact of the event and provided reassurance to internal and external stakeholders as well as members of the public"
UKHSA laboratories operate under the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Quality Standard, accredited by United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). Details of our accreditations can be found on the UKAS website or by contacting us directly.
Where analysis and sampling methods does not require formal UKAS accreditation, UKHSA nevertheless prides itself on offering a similar level of Quality Assurance and standards of service.
Our laboratories take part in a number of Inter-Laboratory Comparison (ILC) exercises. These help us to continually monitor, maintain and improve the consistency and quality of results produced.
You can have confidence in any analytical work we carry out.
| Organiser & Exercise | Typical analysis and samples | Participation |
|---|---|---|
| US Dept. of Environment, Mixed Analyte Performance Evaluation Programme (MAPEP) | Strontium, technetium, uranium, plutonium & americium, tritium, total alpha/beta, gamma emitting nuclides and stable metals in soil, vegetation and water | 2010 to date |
| Procorad series | tritium, carbon-14, actinides (uranium, thorium, plutonium and americium) in urine | 2003 to date |
| Max Rubner Institute (MRI) | Strontium and gamma spectrometry in various samples including milk, green tea and soil | 2016 to date |
| National Physical Laboratory (NPL)- performance testing of dosimetry services | Determination of tritium in water | 2020 to date |
| European Commission- Joint Research Council (EU-JRC) | Gamma spectrometry in various sample types including soil, vegetation, fruit, air filter and water | 2011 to date |
| Institute of Public Health, Québec. QMEQAS programme | Stable metals analysis in various samples including urine, hair and serum | 2012 to date |
| NPL, tritium in urine performance testing | Analysis of H-3 in spiked water samples | 2019 |
Environmental Performance and Management
Most companies and organisations now recognise the importance of using suppliers who can provide a level of service that's backed by an approved Environmental Management System. Consideration of Environmental Performance and Waste Management issues are key to providing stakeholder confidence in the service we provide.
UKHSA is certified to the ISO14001:2014 standard by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).