Frequently Asked Questions
Plain answers about polygraph testing at our Swindon office: what it costs, how accurate it is, how to get ready and what actually happens once you arrive at Windmill Hill.
Before You Book
People do not search for a polygraph test on a whim. If you are here, the question has probably been sitting with you for a while. Booking is not an accusation and it is not a verdict. It is a decision to replace guesswork with evidence. The regret we hear most often across the group is about the months spent deciding, never about the test itself.
A short LPI reference and nothing else. Polygraph, lie detector and Swindon do not appear anywhere on the transaction, so anyone glancing at your statement learns nothing from it.
Then no test takes place. We only examine volunteers, and written consent is checked before anything begins, so nobody can be booked in against their will. The offer itself still tells you something. Willingness says one thing, refusal says another, and you learn that before spending anything.
Tell us as early as you can and we will do what we can to move you to another day. If you make it as far as the car park at Windmill Hill and freeze, you are not the first. Come in and talk to the examiner anyway. Nothing is recorded until every question has been agreed with you, and nobody will push you into going ahead.
That depends on what the result is, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we see most, whichever way it goes, is relief. A truthful result gives a couple something solid to stand on. A deceptive one swaps months of confusion for a fact you can act on. The report is yours, what you do with it is yours, and you are welcome to call us afterwards to talk it through.
Understanding Polygraph Tests
Four things, continuously: breathing, blood pressure and heart rate, and the electrical activity of the skin. Sensors on your chest, arm and fingers record them while you answer a short set of agreed questions. The instrument does not detect lies as such. It records how your body responds to each question, and the examiner scores the pattern of those responses against validated standards. Done properly, with a trained examiner and a modern computerised instrument, decision accuracy sits between 90 and 98 percent.
The whole appointment takes around 90 minutes, so allow two hours. Most of that is the pre-test interview, where the issue is discussed and every question agreed. The recorded part, with the sensors on, is comparatively short. The examiner then reviews the charts and tells you the preliminary result before you leave.
Three kinds. Relevant questions go to the issue you are there about. Comparison questions are broader and give the examiner something to score your relevant responses against. Neutral questions, like confirming your name, show what your ordinary responses look like. Every one of them is agreed with you in the pre-test interview. There are no surprises once the recording starts.
Yes, every one of them. Agreeing the exact wording is what the pre-test interview is for. You and the examiner work through each question until it is clear, specific and means the same thing to both of you. A question you did not expect would make the result worthless, so it does not happen.
Accuracy and Reliability
A single issue test run properly sits between 90 and 98 percent decision accuracy. The gap between the two numbers is not luck. It comes down to the examiner's training, the instrument, the room and the question technique. Check all four before you book with anyone.
Your state on the day matters: no sleep, illness, alcohol or drugs can all muddy the charts. The room matters, which is why we test in a private, solid-walled meeting room and not a kitchen. Most of all, the examiner matters. Training is what lets an examiner tell ordinary nerves from a deceptive response, and it is the one thing you cannot judge from a website, so ask.
No. Everyone is nervous, and the scoring expects it. The examiner compares your responses to different types of question against each other, not against some calm ideal. An honest person with a racing heart and an honest person who feels fine produce the same result.
Not usually, and we will not tell you otherwise. Courts in England and Wales do not generally accept polygraph results as evidence, although the test is used in sex offender and terrorism licence supervision. Where it earns its keep is in private matters, workplace investigations and in giving a solicitor something to work with. Some solicitors commission a test to inform strategy even though the report itself will not be put before a judge.
Cost and Pricing
Not if your appointment is more than three days away. You can secure it with a £149 deposit and the balance is taken automatically from the same card two days before your test, so there is nothing to remember and nothing to pay at the office. The deposit is non-refundable because it holds that slot for you alone. If you would rather pay in full, you can, and Klarna is available at checkout.
A single issue test at our Swindon office is from £449, paid online when you book. That covers the pre-test interview, the examination and the written report with the recorded charts inside 24 hours. Couples tests are from £695, theft investigations from £499 and pre-employment screening from £549. If a price anywhere looks remarkably low, ask what was left out, because it is usually the examiner's training or the instrument.
Because that is what turns a slot on a calendar into an appointment that exists. The moment you book, the room at Windmill Hill is reserved for you, the examiner is assigned and your preparation notes go out. The deposit is non-refundable for the same reason: it is holding a time nobody else can have. You can pay in full instead, including with Klarna, or secure a date more than three days away with a £149 deposit and let the balance collect itself two days before.
Not for the standard service. The price you pay at booking includes the interview, the examination, the written report with charts and a conversation afterwards if you want one. Home visits are a separate service, booked through Home Polygraph Services at https://homepolygraph.com. Anything outside the ordinary, such as a written statement for legal use, is quoted before you commit to it.
Yes, when several people are tested on the same day at the same office. The couples test is the common example and has its own price. For a workplace matter with three or four staff, or a family where more than one person wants to clear their name, get in touch and we will quote for the group.
Preparation and Requirements
Get a normal night's sleep. Eat as you usually would. Take any prescribed medication as normal. Avoid alcohol for 24 hours beforehand and go easy on caffeine on the day. Wear something comfortable that is not bulky, because the sensors go on your chest, upper arm and fingers. Beyond that, there is nothing to rehearse. Turn up ready to tell the truth and the test takes care of itself.
Alcohol and recreational drugs for 24 hours. Energy drinks and heavy caffeine on the day. Any so-called countermeasures you have read about online, which do not work and tend to produce a result you did not want. And do not spend the night before quizzing friends who have taken a test somewhere else. Their experience will not be yours and it only adds nerves.
Usually, yes, as long as we know about it. Heart, respiratory, blood pressure and neurological conditions are the ones the examiner most needs to hear about, along with any medication. Pregnancy is not normally a bar when it is straightforward. Tell us when you book or at the start of the pre-test interview and the examiner will decide whether anything needs adjusting.
Keep taking it. Stopping a prescribed medication for the sake of a test is a bad idea and does more harm to the charts than the drug ever would. Beta blockers, blood pressure tablets, anti-anxiety medication, stimulants and antidepressants are all worth mentioning because they shape how your body responds, and the examiner needs that context to score fairly. Bring a list, including anything over the counter.
We will consider anyone from around 14 upwards, provided they understand what the test is, what the questions mean and what it means to lie. Anyone under 18 needs written permission from a parent or guardian. The examiner takes extra care in the pre-test interview with a younger person, and will not proceed if they are not satisfied the young person understands and genuinely agrees.
The Testing Process
You sit down with the examiner in the meeting room and talk. They explain how the instrument works and show you the sensors. You go through the background to the issue, then agree the wording of every question that will be asked. You sign a consent form confirming you are taking part voluntarily. This part takes most of the appointment, and it is where the accuracy of the result is really decided.
Photo ID, such as a passport or driving licence. If you are being tested about a specific event, any dates, messages or documents that help pin down what is in dispute are useful but not essential. Wear comfortable clothing without thick layers. If you are booking on behalf of someone else, bring whatever you have about the matter so the examiner can frame the questions well.
The examiner gives you the preliminary result before you leave the office. The full written report follows within 24 hours by email. It is not a sentence saying pass or fail. It sets out the questions, the charts and the analysis so that anyone reading it can see how the conclusion was reached.
The questions asked, exactly as agreed. The recorded charts showing your responses to each of them. The examiner's scoring and conclusion, with the method used and anything that might have affected the test. It is written so that a solicitor, an employer or a partner who was not in the room can follow it. You can read a sample on this site before you book.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Yes. Your result goes only to the person named on the consent form. Nobody else hears about it from us, and appointments at Windmill Hill are staggered so you will not cross paths with another client. The one exception is a serious safeguarding concern, where we may have a legal duty to report, and that would be discussed with you.
Whoever is named on the consent form, and nobody else. If you are tested at the request of a partner or an employer, that is agreed before the test and written down. If you booked for yourself, the report comes to you and sharing it is entirely your choice. We do not pass results to anyone on the strength of a phone call.
Under UK GDPR, on encrypted systems with access limited to those working on your case. Paper is kept to a minimum and locked away. Records are held for a set period and then securely destroyed. We never sell or share your details, and you have the usual rights to ask what we hold about you and, in some circumstances, to have it deleted.
Specific Use Cases
It can answer the specific question, which is usually what has been impossible to get. The test examines one issue, framed as agreed questions, and the result is backed by charts rather than by whoever argued longest. What the answer does to the relationship is a separate matter. Some couples book as a way to rebuild, some to reach a decision. Either way, the test is the same and so is the discretion around it.
Yes. Pre-employment screening for positions of trust, and single issue testing when something has gone wrong inside a business. In the UK the employee must take part voluntarily, with written consent, and we will not test without it. An employer who offers the test to everyone affected, with no pressure, usually finds it settles things faster than any amount of internal questioning.
That is one of the things it does best. When money or stock has gone and several people had access, single issue tests clear the innocent one by one and narrow the field quickly. Taking part has to be voluntary. Results are one piece of a wider investigation rather than the whole of it, but they stop the slow poison of everyone suspecting everyone else.
Not as courtroom evidence, as a rule. But solicitors do commission tests to inform their approach, to weigh a client's account or to support a negotiation, and a clean result can carry real weight in a settlement or in family proceedings where both sides agree to it. Speak to your solicitor first about how a report could be used in your particular case.
Additional Common Questions
A failed result means the charts indicated deception on the relevant questions. The examiner will go through it with you, because occasionally there is a reason, such as a question that landed differently from how it was meant. Where that is the case a retest may make sense. Where the charts are clear, they are clear, and the report will say so. What follows depends on why you were tested. The polygraph tells you that deception was indicated, not why.
You can stop the test at any point. What you cannot usefully do is skip individual questions once recording has started, because that leaves the examiner with nothing to score. The time to object to a question is in the pre-test interview, where the wording is agreed, and you will have every chance to do so.
It happens in roughly one test in ten. Inconclusive does not mean deceptive. It means the charts were not clear enough to call either way, often because of illness, medication, exhaustion or movement during the recording. The examiner will explain what they saw, and a retest can be arranged once whatever got in the way has been dealt with.
Of course. The office is just off junction 16 of the M4, which puts most of Wiltshire, the southern Cotswolds and west Berkshire within a reasonable drive, and Swindon station is about 15 minutes away by taxi. Where travelling is genuinely not possible, our sister service Home Polygraph Services tests in your home, booked online at https://homepolygraph.com.
Yes. The business centre at Windmill Hill has a reception area where a companion can wait. Only you and the examiner are in the room during the examination. Your confirmation email tells you what to say when you arrive.
Tests at the Swindon office run Monday to Friday. If you require an evening or weekend test, our home visit service through Home Polygraph Services covers seven days a week in your own home. Booking enquiries are answered around the clock by phone, WhatsApp or the enquiry form, whichever day it is.
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