Shipping of sampling kits to you and returning back to our laboratory

Shipping to you:

• As standard, we will send a single sampling kit containing all swabs and consent forms by Royal Mail Tracked 24 (no signature required) delivery. Royal Mail aim to deliver within 24-48 hours however this is not a guaranteed service. There is no charge for Tracked 24 delivery.
• You may upgrade to Royal Mail Guaranteed Next Day Delivery before 1pm (signature required), this usually excludes weekends. Additional fees apply for this service.
• For both services, you will receive a separate e-mail from Royal Mail with the tracking details.
• Please note we cannot ship outside of the UK. If any test participants are outside of the UK, please send the kit to a UK address. It is then your responsibility to send the kit to your chosen destination. We recommend returning samples from outside of the UK by courier so avoid any deterioration of the completed samples in transit.

Returning your samples to our laboratory: 

• Within our sampling kit is a pre-paid Royal Mail Tracked 24 return envelope.
• Royal Mail aim to deliver these to our laboratory within 24-48 hours however this is not a guaranteed service.
• Should you wish to guarantee timely delivery, please take the sealed return package to a Post Office and pay additional fees required to top-up to Guaranteed Next Day Delivery before 1pm.
• We will notify the ordering party by e-mail of sample receipt and confirm the expected results de date.

Once we have received your samples in our laboratory:

• We do not work on weekends, Bank Holidays or between Christmas and New Year.
• The turnaround of your results starts from the date we receive all properly consented samples (including evidence of Parental Responsibility if required).
• The day we receive your properly consented samples is day zero.
• Results are generally after 4pm on the expected results due date.
• If you have selected “2 day” results; these will be available on the second working day. For example, if we receive your samples on a Tuesday, results will be on Thursday after 4pm.
• If you have selected “next day” results; these will be available on the next working day. For example, if we receive your samples on a Tuesday, results will be on Wednesday after 4pm. If we receive your samples on a Friday, results will be Monday (except for where Bank Holiday or Christmas Closure applies).

All shipping is in the hands of Royal Mail and so we cannot be held responsible for any postage delays. Therefore, if you would like to guarantee timely delivery, we recommend you select Guaranteed Next Day Delivery before 1pm and also top up the return package at the Post Office to the same. Fees for which are to be paid by the customer.