UK Biocentre renews Investors in People accreditation
Milton Keynes-based UK Biocentre has retained its Investors in People accreditation, three years after first achieving the standard and following the first full reassessment in the company’s history.
The company employs around 125 people at its purpose-built laboratories at Java Park in Tilbrook and is one of the UK’s leading providers of biological sample storage, processing and management, supporting national research programmes including Our Future Health, the NIHR BioResource and Genomics England.
The reaccreditation follows six years of exceptional change for the business, with assessors also noting a significant improvement throughout. In March 2020, UK Biocentre was named the UK’s first lighthouse laboratory for NHS Test and Trace. Within a year it had grown from a specialist laboratory to an operation employing 1,500 people running around the clock, and it went on to process 31.7 million Covid-19 samples, peaking at 126,000 a day.
The company first achieved Investors in People accreditation in August 2023, as the organisation returned to its pre-pandemic scale. In March 2026 it was acquired by Azenta UK Ltd, part of Azenta, Inc., and continues to operate under the UK Biocentre name from its Milton Keynes site with its existing leadership team.
Organisations are independently reassessed for Investors in People accreditation every three years and must demonstrate that the standard is still being met across the business.
The reaccreditation was led by HR Director Linda Dunbar Bassett, working with UK Biocentre’s HR team. Together they managed the submission and co-ordinated the assessment across the business.
Linda said: “I am delighted that we have successfully retained our Investors in People accreditation following our recent reaccreditation assessment.
“This is a significant achievement and a testament to the commitment, dedication and hard work of our colleagues across the organisation. We are incredibly proud of this outcome and look forward to building on this success over the next three years.
“Not only does the accreditation support our continued growth and development, but it also demonstrates to our customers our ongoing commitment to investing in our people, something they see as a real positive and an important mark of quality.”
Dr Tony Cox OBE, Chief Executive Officer at UK Biocentre, said: “This business has seen some significant change over the past six years and retaining this Investors in People standard throughout that says a great deal about our values and the commitment of the people here .”
Investors in People is an independent standard for people management, used by organisations in more than 70 countries. Accreditation is awarded following an assessment against nine performance indicators covering how an organisation leads, supports and improves its people, and lasts for three years before reassessment.