A verified directory, not a ranking for sale. Ordered by data.
The laboratories
Filter by what matters to you. "Scope covers legionella" is the field most buyers get wrong: a lab can be UKAS-accredited for other tests but not for legionella in water. Blank fields show as "Not published" rather than guessed.
| Laboratory | UKAS | Scope covers legionella | Method | Turnaround | Price from | Kit | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20/30 Labs Ltd site ↗ Brackmills, Northampton |
4236 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731:2017; L032 membrane-filtration direct plate; L046 filtration onto GVPC) | Not published | Not published | Yes | UK-wide (healthcare estates focus) |
| ALS Environmental (ALS Laboratories (UK) Limited) site ↗ Coventry |
1314 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731) | Not published | Not published | – | UK-wide |
| Alpha Scientific Limited (trading as Alpha Scientific / ADEY) site ↗ Slough Trading Estate, Slough, Hexagon Tower, Blackley, Manchester, Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne |
7620 | Yes | Culture (ISO 11731:2017; AM-06 filtration onto GVPC; latex agglutination at both labs, MALDI-TOF MS at Slough) | Not published | Not published | Yes | UK-wide (courier logistics and drop-off locations) |
| Envirochem Analytical Laboratories Ltd site ↗ Fareham, Hampshire |
1227 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731) | 12 working days | £45 | Yes | UK-wide |
| Eurofins Water Hygiene Testing UK Limited site ↗ Wolverhampton, Livingston, Grimsby, Feltham |
9658 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731), MALDI-TOF | Not published | Not published | Yes | UK-wide (multiple labs) |
| Feedwater Laboratories site ↗ Moreton, Wirral |
2234 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731) | ~10 days | £83 | Yes | UK-wide (lab in Wirral) |
| Normec Latis Scientific Ltd site ↗ Crayford, Kent, Consett, County Durham |
2279 | Yes | Culture (BS ISO 11731:2017; in-house MIC003d, Oxoid latex agglutination identification, theoretical LoD 50 cfu/L) | Not published | Not published | – | UK-wide (in-house courier collection and drop-off points) |
| One Scientific Limited site ↗ Avonmouth, Bristol |
2048 | Yes | Culture (in-house M027, plates incubated at 37C, Oxoid latex agglutination confirmation) | Not published | Not published | – | UK-wide (national collection service) |
| Socotec UK Ltd site ↗ Bretby, Burton upon Trent, East Kilbride |
1015 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731) | Not published | Not published | – | UK-wide (managed service) |
| South East Laboratories Limited site ↗ Medway City Estate, Kent |
9856 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731; in-house MIC018, filtration onto GVPC, fluorescence and latex agglutination confirmation) | 24-hour turnaround advertised (express); standard culture turnaround not published | Not published | – | UK-wide by post (lab in Kent) |
| TEST Medical (Theatre & Endoscopy Service Technicians Ltd, trading as T.E.S.T.) site ↗ Stoke-on-Trent |
4522 | Yes | Culture (BS EN ISO 11731) | Not published | Not published | Yes | UK-wide |
| ifp-labs UK West Yorkshire Limited (Microsearch Laboratories) site ↗ Luddendenfoot, Halifax, West Yorkshire, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire |
1916 | Yes | Culture (TP4189, filtration with washing onto GVPC, latex agglutination identification; based on BS EN ISO 11731) | Not published | Not published | Yes | UK-wide by post (self-service checkout with posted sample vessel and return label) |
No laboratories match that filter.
"Not published" means we could not confirm the field from the UKAS register or the lab's own site, not that it does not exist. Ask the lab directly, and check the accreditation scope yourself at ukas.com before you commit.
Free legionella risk assessment template
A structured Word document following the five-step approach in ACOP L8. Covers risk identification, written scheme, monitoring, and records. If it isn't written down, you can't evidence it.
Follows ACoP L8 and HSG274 Part 2. Free. No spam.
How to choose a legionella testing lab
The most important check takes five minutes, costs nothing, and almost nobody does it.
"UKAS-accredited" does not mean accredited for Legionella. Check the schedule, not the marketing.
UKAS accreditation is specific to named tests. A laboratory can hold ISO 17025 accreditation, display the UKAS badge, and still not be accredited for Legionella in water. Its accreditation might cover food, or general water chemistry, or something else entirely. Send your samples there and you pay for a result from a lab whose accreditation does not cover the test you needed, and no one tells you.
How to check a lab's schedule yourself
Every accredited laboratory has a public Schedule of Accreditation on the UKAS website that lists exactly which tests the accreditation covers. Checking it is quick:
- Find the lab's UKAS accreditation number, on their website or by searching the lab name in the register at ukas.com/find-an-organisation.
- Open their Schedule of Accreditation, the PDF linked from their register entry.
- Search that PDF for "Legionella" (Ctrl-F, or Cmd-F on a Mac). If the word is not there, the accreditation does not cover legionella testing, whatever the badge or the sales page says. A genuine legionella scope names Legionella, against water, and usually the method ISO 11731.
Every laboratory in the table above has had its schedule read this way and its Legionella-in-water scope confirmed. The UKAS number shown is the one whose schedule carries the legionella scope.
The other things that decide a good result
- Culture or qPCR. The reference method is culture to BS EN ISO 11731, which grows and counts the bacteria and takes around ten days. qPCR detects legionella DNA far faster, often within a day, but does not distinguish live from dead cells, so it is a screening or triage tool, not a like-for-like replacement for culture in compliance monitoring.
- Sampling done right. The result is only as good as the sample. Sampling follows BS 7592, and the sample must reach the lab quickly and be kept cool. See legionella sampling and action levels for how a sample is taken and what the counts mean.
- Turnaround, when it matters. If you are out of temperature range or investigating a case, a ten-day culture wait is a long time. Know the lab's turnaround before you need it, and whether a faster qPCR screen is available alongside.
Whether you need to sample at all is a question the risk assessment answers. For most well-controlled systems, temperature monitoring is the primary control and routine sampling is not required. See legionella testing for when sampling is and is not needed, and HSG274 for where it sits in the guidance.
How this directory is built
The same show-your-working discipline as our enforcement tracker. This is a directory of what labs publish about themselves, verified against primary sources. It is not an endorsement, and it never certifies a lab's competence.
How labs are verified
Each laboratory's accreditation is checked against the UKAS public accreditation register at ukas.com, and the remaining facts (method, turnaround, price, coverage) are taken from the laboratory's own website. Every field carries a verification date. Where we could not confirm a field, it shows as "Not published" rather than being guessed, because a wrong UKAS number against a named company would misrepresent its credentials. A UKAS number appears here only where we confirmed it on the register itself.
We checked more laboratories than appear here. Several that market themselves as UKAS-accredited turned out not to hold Legionella-in-water scope on their accreditation schedule, so they are not listed. That is why the list is deliberately short. A duty holder is better served by a few laboratories whose legionella scope we have actually read on the schedule than by a longer list padded with labs that are not accredited for this specific test. The list grows as more schedules are confirmed, never by lowering the bar.
Ordering, and our independence
The table is ordered by data: UKAS scope first, then turnaround, then name. No laboratory pays to appear or to rank, and no commercial relationship influences inclusion or order. That independence is the point. If we ever arrange testing through a partner laboratory, it will be shown in a clearly separate block that discloses the relationship plainly, never woven into this table.
How it is kept current, and corrections
Accreditation, prices and turnaround change, so entries are re-checked (UKAS status at least annually, price and turnaround more often) and a field ages back to "Not published" rather than showing a stale figure. If you run a laboratory listed here and a detail is wrong or out of date, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it against the primary source.
What this is not
This directory reports what laboratories publish about themselves, verified against primary sources. It does not certify any laboratory's competence, does not guarantee a result, and does not tell anyone their water is safe. Always confirm a lab's current accreditation scope yourself before you commit.
Cite this directory
Councils, trade bodies, facilities managers and journalists are welcome to link to this page. Suggested citation:
LegionellaCheck (2026) UK Legionella Testing Laboratories: 12 laboratories compared. Available at: https://legionellacheck.org.uk/legionella-testing-labs