The British Geological Survey recently published an open access study on the distribution and abundance of organic pollutants in London soils1 . The study reflects an opportunity to characterise soil contamination at different geographical scales to support site specific risk-based land management (RBLM). The policy backdrop for this study is the coalition Government’s announcement and implementation of the Environment Theme Red Tape Challenge2 . Effective changes arising from the initiative may end up being quite far reaching, with the potential archiving of many useful guidance documents.