This will be my final foreword, as Chair of AGS, as my tenure will pass to the safe hands of Sally Hudson at the AGM on 11th May 2021.

Since the last issue we have been progressing the Third Edition of the UK Specification for ground investigation and the draft is likely to be available for industry review in June. Despite the inevitable delays due to COVID and the challenges of managing a review process entirely virtually we hope that the new ‘Yellow Book’ will be published by ICE in early 2022. To accompany this and in line with our aim to improve the ground investigation procurement process, we have also been in discussion with NEC and hope to soon announce a working group to develop improved NEC documents for ground investigation contracts.

The revisions and publication of British Standards continues with significant support from AGS members and I am pleased to announce that we have recently appointed Gary Evans as AGS Representative on the B526 committee. Congratulations to Gary and we look forward to receiving your reports which will accompany the reports from Mike Smith on the geoenvironmental standards. I am also pleased to announce that the revision of BS EN ISO 22475 now looks to have reached a compromise and will be voted for publication within CEN and ISO very shortly. More details on publication of standards are provided later in the magazine.

It has been a busy and exciting two years and I would like to thank my fellow officers, Forum Court and the members of the Working Parties for the significant achievements made by the AGS during my tenure. I will be providing a more complete overview at the AGM which will be held virtually through BigMarker. It is free to register and so I hope to see you all there.