Building a sustainable profession: SRB's progress update

As the Standards and Regulation Board (SRB) is preparing for its annual strategy meeting, I’ve been reflecting on our progress so far this year on two of our important strategic objectives.

Sustainable profession

At RICS, our commitment to upholding professional standards is matched by our dedication to supporting our members and regulated firms. The Regulation Profession Support and Assurance (PSA) function plays a vital role in this mission, offering independent assurance and proactive compliance reviews across key regulatory schemes.

In mid-2024, we launched the PSA Regulated Firms Team — a strategic initiative designed to address a gap in support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up over 95% of our regulated firms. Feedback from the profession made it clear: SMEs felt underserved in comparison to larger organisations, despite facing equally complex regulatory obligations.

The new team has a dual remit: to assure compliance and to support firms in achieving it. Through structured reviews, standardised communications, and practical tools, we are helping firms navigate their obligations with confidence and clarity.

In its first year, the team has completed 162 regulated firm reviews. These reviews have revealed common areas where firms need support, including:

• Correct use of the RICS logo
• Compliant complaints handling procedures
• Understanding and maintaining compliant PII cover
• Anti-Money Laundering obligations
• Locum arrangements

We are actively working across Regulation and beyond to address these issues and provide targeted guidance.

The feedback from firms has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have described the reviews as “proactive,” “supportive,” and “informative,” with one newly registered firm even requesting annual reviews. This response affirms the value of our approach and the importance of direct engagement.

The Regulated Firm Assurance Programme is more than a compliance exercise — it’s a partnership. It reflects our belief that regulation should not only uphold standards but also empower firms to thrive. We are proud of the progress made so far, and committed to expanding this support to ensure every RICS-regulated firm, regardless of size, receives the attention and guidance it deserves.

Thank you to all firms who have participated so far. Your openness and engagement are helping shape a stronger, more inclusive regulatory environment.

Competence

We are in the midst of two major projects which aim to assure the competence of members at the point they join the profession as well as throughout their career.

We have appointed Sarah Hutchinson, who led the Entry and Assessment Review, as chair of the Design, Implementation and Oversight Group to bring these important changes into effect. We are also appointing the remaining members of the Group, which will report to the SRB on the creation of new assessment requirements for aspiring members working in the natural and built environment, and providing the highest quality experience for candidates and stakeholders. The SRB will be keeping a close eye on the progress of this work.

Progress is also being made on the project to implement a new approach to Continuing Professional Development which we announced earlier this year to help members maintain and improve their professional competence. SRB will be reviewing the work to develop the new framework, to improve the tools for members to record their CPD, and the provision of CPD in the new mandatory topics at its meeting in September 2025 and we will continue to communicate with members to support these changes.

The SRB will also be considering how the CPD framework should assure the continued competence of members around building and fire safety. SRB has recently carried out an important survey of members who carry out work related to the fire safety of buildings. Thank you to all of those who replied. This information helps us to understand who in our regulated population provides these services allowing us to make better regulatory decisions and contribute to ongoing collaboration with government and other bodies across the industry. We want to keep this information up to date and will be providing a field to allow members to report that they are doing this work as part of their CPD return.

SRB communications

I want to ensure that we share more information about SRB’s work and how we make decisions. I am looking forward to providing a further update later in the year about our strategy meeting in September and our work this year on our other strategic priorities.