All 10 members of the standards and regulation board at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have tendered their resignation, without giving any reason.
In a statement on the RICS website, Ann Gray, RICS president and chair of the governing council, said the entire standards board, including its chair Dame Janet Paraskeva, had stepped down.
She added that the board members would be able to work ‘a short notice period’ to ensure ‘a smooth transition for their successors’. No explanation was given for the resignations.
‘Our activities remain in full operation and there is no break in the continuity of regulatory functions,’ said Gray, noting that RICS had started a search for a replacement chair and board members.
The Standards and Regulation Board (SRB) is responsible for carrying out RICS’ regulatory functions and sets and polices standards. It is independently led and reports to the governing council.
The mass walkout comes nearly two years after RICS was rocked by an auditing scandal. An independent review into the handling of a financial audit concluded that four non-executive board members, who raised legitimate concerns that the audit had been suppressed, were wrongly dismissed.
The review led to the resignation of four senior figures at RICS, including CEO Sean Tompkins.
RICS recently announced that Justin Young would take office as its new CEO on 5 July.
