Structural Soils is highly qualified to perform a range of geotechnical and geoenvironmental ground investigation services. You can find out more about our certifications, accreditations, registrations and memberships below.
Structural Soils holds current certifications to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 for all operations. These three internationally recognised standards for health, safety, quality and environmental management are combined as an integrated management system. DNV (UKAS 013) assesses ongoing conformance and effectiveness of this integrated management system through regular audits and evaluations of office and site-based activities. This continuous improvement process provides reassurance to our customers that the services they are procuring are legally compliant and implement best practice principles across all business activities.
We hold a BS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation for our in-house geotechnical testing laboratories in Bristol, Castleford, Hemel Hempstead, Tunbridge Wells and Falkland Islands. UKAS accreditation, a formal third party recognition of competence to perform specific tasks, reassures our clients that the services they have procured have been assessed against internationally recognised standards to demonstrate competence, impartiality and performance capability. Our accreditation is limited to those activities described on our current UKAS schedule of accreditation found here.
We are registered with and assessed by Achilles’ Utilities Vendor Database (UVDB) Verify Scheme. Previously assessed as part of RSK, we have had a stand-alone accreditation since November 2014 following extensive audits on both office and site-based ground investigation activities.
Achilles is the world’s leading provider of supplier management information. All major UK utility providers use Achilles’ UVDB registration and pre-qualification system to source suppliers and contractors. Verify is an extension to UVDB and is used to qualify suppliers further by assessing their safety, health, environment and quality capabilities. Achilles promotes supply chain efficiencies, independent assessment and benchmarking, credibility in the marketplace and industry-specific assessments. Our current scores for the UVDB audit are 100% for each category of desk and site-based assessments, undertaken in February 2024.
The Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS) is a non-profit trade association established to improve the profile and quality of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. The membership comprises UK organisations and individuals who have a common interest in the business of ground investigation, geotechnics, geoenvironmental engineering, engineering geology, geochemistry, hydrogeology and other related disciplines.
We have multiple AGS committee representatives across data management and laboratory specialisms. Structural Soils is a registered user of the AGS data format.
We are a trade member of the British Drilling Association (BDA). The BDA is a trade organisation committed to excellence in health and safety, high-quality workmanship and technical standards in land drilling. It promotes standards of efficiency, health and safety, training and education in the drilling industry and for its clients. We have BDA-audited drillers and a staff member who sits on the health and safety committee.
We are registered with Constructionline (registration number 28520), the UK’s register of pre-qualified local and national construction and construction-related contractors and consultants and a member of Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP). Owned and endorsed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Constructionline gathers and assesses pre-qualification information to provide procurers with access to over 14,000 fully accredited suppliers free of charge and contractors and consultants with access to over 1700 buyers.
We hold an Environment Agency waste carrier licence, on a tri-annual renewal basis, to ensure that we can remove waste on sites to our site compound or, for smaller sites, to our nearest base office for appropriate off-site disposal.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly Government license us to import soils and rock from all over the world. We are one of only a few laboratories in the UK that has this licence, which allows us to import, move and keep prohibited soil for chemical and physical analysis. Our sister company Envirolab is also licensed, so we can offer a geotechnical and geoenvironmental testing service to our international clients. The licence features strict protocols for storing, testing and disposing of samples.
Since 2014, we have held bronze Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) status for all fleet vehicles of more than 2 tonnes, including our extensive range of non-car-derived vans. All our four-wheel-drive and towing operations are included in the accreditation across our four operating bases.
Since 2021, we have held a restricted operator’s licence, enabling equipment to be transported to site in 7 tonne Class 3 HGVs. Our four IVECO vans are Euro 6 compliant, run AdBlue NOx reduction systems and, with the increased payload, reduce the need to tow trailers with drilling plant to many sites and to send multiple support vehicles to sites. This change to our logistics management has reduced the number of vehicles and associated mileage and carbon emissions required to mobilise to sites.
We gained accreditation to the Investors in People standard in November 2009 as part of RSK’s reassessment process. Investors in People is a flexible, tailored and easy-to-use people management standard, designed to help achieve individual business objectives by developing and harnessing the skills of the people employed through managed change, engagement with employees and leadership capabilities.
We are qualified to B2 Audit category with the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS), the UK rail industry’s supplier qualification scheme (supplier number 1727). RISQS provides a single common registration, qualification and audit process for suppliers shared by the UK rail industry. Annual site and office-based audits are undertaken to ensure the ongoing effective management of stringent railway standards.
We undertook an initial assessment via Smas WorkSafe (SSIP member, certificate number 55418) in December 2010 for a client-driven enquiry that required an SSIP scheme member to assess a principal contractor CDM role in detail for an upcoming tender opportunity. Membership has been sustained through annual audits since 2010 and is widely used by those seeking to procure pre-approved contractor or principal contractor services in the ground investigation sector.
We have an extensive history of undertaking detailed and complex ground investigations across the UK and overseas. Our in-house engineering, drilling, laboratory testing, monitoring, down hole geologging and in situ testing capabilities are supplemented by geophysical, service location, unexploded ordnance clearance, chemical testing, archaeological and ecological services.
The RSK group is a leading integrated environmental, engineering and technical services business offering bespoke end-to-end solutions to a variety of sectors. Headquartered in the UK but with an established presence throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, RSK helps organisations around the world achieve their business aspirations in a sustainable and efficient manner.
