RECORDREFERENCE OUTLINE

Sample Chain of Custody Record

Custody record accounting for every sample from the participant to the result and its disposal. Unique identifiers never reused, every transfer recorded with person, time and condition, transit excursions assessed against analyte stability, receipt reconciled against expected, aliquots inheriting the parent chain, and a documented end state for each sample. Maps to WHO GCLP (2009) and EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010.

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

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REGULATIONS MAPPED
WHO GCLP (2009)EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010
DOCUMENT TYPE
Record
LAST UPDATED
August 2026
PURPOSE

Chain of custody records that a sample analysed in the laboratory is the sample taken from a specific participant at a specific visit, and that its condition never left the range the assay requires. It is unusual among trial controls in that it can only be built forwards: a gap found later cannot be filled, because the missing evidence is the record nobody made at the time.

What's Inside

Sample register with unique identifiers, visit and timepoint, and linkage to any parent sample
Custody transfers recorded with the person, the time, and the condition observed on receipt
Transit monitoring data, with each excursion assessed against the analyte’s own stability data
Receipt reconciliation of samples expected against samples received, with discrepancies resolved rather than noted
Aliquots and derived samples inheriting the parent chain, so a result stays attributable to a participant
Storage location history, so a sample can be found without a search through every freezer
A documented end state for every sample — analysed, exhausted, destroyed, returned or retained

How to Use It

1Assign the identifier at collection and never reuse it; reused identifiers make two samples permanently indistinguishable and neither result attributable.
2Record every handover as it happens, because a gap discovered later cannot be filled — the missing evidence is the record never made.
3Capture the condition observed on receipt, not merely the fact of receipt; condition is the part a later investigation will need.
4Assess each transit excursion against the analyte stability data rather than noting it and continuing straight to analysis.
5Give every aliquot its parent identifier at the moment it is created, or its result cannot be attributed to a participant.
6Close each sample with an end state; samples with no recorded fate are the ones that appear in a monitoring finding.
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

Document Control
Document InformationApproval SignaturesRevision HistoryDistribution List
1Sample Register
2Custody Transfers
3Transit Conditions and Excursions
4Receipt Reconciliation
5Aliquots and Derived Samples
6End State
REGULATORY CONTEXT

WHO Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (2009) sets the expectations for sample identification, handling, storage and traceability, and the EMA reflection paper EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010 addresses inspection of trial-related laboratory activity and the records supporting it. Neither defines your identifier scheme, your acceptable transit conditions, or the stability data an excursion is judged against — those follow from your assay and belong to the sponsor and laboratory. The record structure is SPEQ practitioner synthesis, and renders as a spreadsheet because custody is a register.

MAPPED STANDARDS
WHO GCLP (2009)EMA/INS/GCP/532137/2010
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