Document downloads - Infrastructure

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  • Expert witness terms of engagement template

    This template is adapted from the practice statement and guidance note, Surveyors acting as expert witnesses. Its sample terms are not intended to be mandatory or prescriptive, and may be adapted as required. It is recognised that a variety of circumstances will prevail in the range of assignments surveyors may undertake and that clauses may not be appropriate in every circumstance. For example, where a client appoints a surveyor directly, without using an appointer, the terms would need to be amended accordingly. Other or additional terms of engagement may also be indicated, for example, by a protocol established under the CPR or in guides that supplement the CPR in certain courts.


    Disclaimer: Users of this document are responsible for forming their own view as to whether this document and its contents are suitable for use in any particular circumstances. The supply of this document does not constitute legal or other professional advice, nor does it constitute any opinion or recommendation as to how any person should conduct its business or whether any person should or should not enter into any form of contract. Users should, if appropriate, consult their professional advisers as to any such matter. No warranty, express or implied, is given in respect of this document and neither RICS nor the authors shall be liable for any loss or damage of any kind arising directly or indirectly from the use or misuse of this document or from any reliance on it by any person, except to the extent that exclusion of such liability is prohibited by law.

  • The informed infrastructure client

    Published September 2015
    Effective from 1 December 2015

    This guidance note is intended for RICS members practising in the infrastructure sector, either providing services to an infrastructure client or working within an infrastructure client organisation.

  • The role of the commercial manager in infrastructure

    Published January 2017
    Effective from January 2017

    This RICS guidance note sets out how the role of the commercial manager is both expanding and deepening in the fast evolving field of infrastructure. It describes how the commercial manager should bring professional skill and influence through the infrastructure project lifecycle and demonstrates the importance of understanding and translating the investment case into disciplined processes; recognising the impact of scale and the uniqueness of engineering not seen elsewhere in general practice, and tailoring the approach to cost, risk and engaging the supply chain.

  • Conflicts of interest: UK commercial property market investment agency

    Published May 2017
    Effective from 1 January 2018
    Reissued June 2024

    This professional standard provides RICS members and RICS regulated firms with mandatory requirements when acting on the open market sale or acquisition of a commercial investment real estate opportunity in the UK in order to avoid conflicts of interest prejudicial to their clients’ best interests.

    It covers:
    - dual agency, including related firms
    - multiple introductions and
    - incremental advice.

    This document was reissued in June 2024 as a professional standard. It had previously been published in May 2017 as a professional statement. No material changes have been made to the document.

    See also RICS' global professional standard 'Conflicts of interest' at: www.isurv.com/downloads/download/2140/conflicts_of_interest_–_global

  • Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment

    Published 19 September 2023
    Reissued 21 November 2023
    Effective from 1 July 2024

    This professional standard will enable professionals to make prudent decisions to limit the whole life carbon impact of buildings and infrastructure. It facilitates carbon measurement from the production of construction materials to the design, construction and eventual end of life of built assets.

  • Digital systems and technology in infrastructure

    This guidance note sets out how digital systems are commercially managed from the procurement and implementation phases through to their operational, maintenance and whole life cycle management within infrastructure assets. By making use of case study evidence from Network Rail's Digital Railway, and TfL's Oyster Card and 'contactless' electronic ticketing across the London transport network, it demonstrates the extent to which technology of this type is increasingly fundamental to infrastructure operational value.

  • Regenerative landscapes (RICS)

    Published March 2018

    Ecosystem damage over the last 50 years of the 20th century was greater than in any comparable period of human history, with estimates that the demands of contemporary global society effectively consume 1.5 ‘Planet Earths’. There is a pressing need to use landscapes and other ecosystems in more sustainable and integrated ways.

    This regenerative landscapes report highlights the need and the means for rebuilding carrying capacity across rural, urban and other cultural landscapes, with a significant emphasis on water.

  • Countering bribery and corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing

    Published February 2019
    Effective from 1 September 2019
    Reissued October 2022

    This global professional standard sets out mandatory requirements for RICS members and RICS-regulated firms in relation to bribery, corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.

    It is divided into three parts:

    1. Mandatory requirements for anti-bribery and corruption and for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.
    2. Guidance setting out supporting good practice regarding each of these areas.
    3. Supplementary guidance on some key concepts described in parts 1 and 2.

    If this document contradicts local legislation then the legislation takes precedence.

  • Big data, smart cities, intelligent buildings - surveying in a digital world

    This insight paper considers the potential disruptive impact of big data and digital technologies on traditional surveying practice. Some of our professionals are directly engaged with the area on a day-to-day basis as data generators. Their industries have always had a strong technical basis and have been closely involved in the sector’s technological developments. Others rely on large databases and big data as users of other people’s content, and so approach this world from a different perspective. Some professionals may seem to be less directly impacted, nevertheless their sectors are steadily being transformed, even as their private practice appears to remain the same.

    It is fair to say that no part of surveying practice will remain untouched by the impact of big data and digital technologies. This will be either through proactive adoption of new digitally based approaches to our work; being led by client demand to deliver these services; or being forced
    by digitally enabled competition from existing providers and new entrants.

  • Surveyors advising in respect of the Electronic Communications Code

    Published November 2019
    Effective from 14 November 2019
    Reissued 2 August 2024

    The electronic communications sector has witnessed dramatic evolution both in terms of the development of new technologies and the demand for services. This has resulted in a profound shift in the way digital electronic communications are deployed, accessed and used. The government acknowledged this by enacting the Electronic Communications Code at the end of 2017, as part of the Digital Economy Act 2017, to facilitate the delivery and maintenance of high quality digital electronic communications infrastructure and to accommodate future technological development. The Code regulates the relationship between electronic communications network operators, infrastructure providers and site providers throughout the UK and provides a statutory framework for establishing agreements to place, operate and maintain electronic communications apparatus on land and property.

    The government’s objective is to achieve the right balance of interests between site providers, electronic communications providers and, most importantly, the public interest in access to a choice of high-quality electronic communications services, and a competitive and sustainable digital communications infrastructure.

    The aim of this standard is to highlight the main factors that may influence or impact the variety of roles a surveyor may be called on to perform within this environment. Given the dynamic nature of the industry, it is not intended to provide an exhaustive body of guidance but to identify the main issues likely to arise. This ground-breaking guidance note will also provide a framework that surveyors can refer to when advising their clients in relation to electronic communications networks and installations that fall under the scope of the Electronic Communications Code.

  • Beyond COVID-19: Reopening of commercial buildings

    This document has global applicability and is designed to give support and advice on the preparations and considerations for the reopening of commercial buildings once pandemic lockdown restrictions are lifted.

  • Beyond COVID-19: Inspections and visits for non-domestic properties

    Recommendations on inspections and visits for non-domestic properties during COVID-19 in England.

  • Measuring social value in infrastructure projects: insights from the public sector

    Published September 2020
    Reissued July 2023

    As the infrastructure sector continues to shift its focus from economic value to more holistic social value, projects are being designed, built and assessed in a new way. Government regulation and consumer demands mean that the industry is being required to deliver and demonstrate social impact. Indeed, social value represents an opportunity for the infrastructure industry to adjust its way of doing business to affect positive change, and impact on people’s quality of life as we seek to ‘Build Back Better’ from COVID-19.

    RICS professionals will have an increasingly key role to play in this, helping clients understand and set social value strategy, and measuring the impact of projects effectively. Not least because national governments, such as, for example, the UK’s emerging ‘value toolkit’, will increasingly demand a wider ESG approach to construction initiation and procurement.

    However, embedding social value into infrastructure delivery is not without its challenges. Currently, the infrastructure sector does not consistently define or measure social value. It lacks a robust set of standards and objectives to guide the delivery and assessment of social value, and there is little capacity for social value measurement.

    This paper:
    • Reviews current practice, focussing on core measurement frameworks considered best practice by government bodies, such as cost-benefit analysis.
    • Addresses the issue of valuing the broader societal effects of infrastructure projects (including environmental impacts).
    • Details 7 international case-studies to illustrate and discuss best practice.

  • Insights into benchmarking in the infrastructure sector

    Published August 2020
    Reissued April 2023

    Building a strong project programme – cost, schedule and proven delivery record – is critical for the sustained infrastructure investment that will be fundamental to the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19, and in pioneering better spaces for people to work and live.

    An essential part of capital planning and programming is developing a firm understanding of project costs and performance. Benchmarking, the process of comparing projected or actual project cost and performance, is therefore central. And by impacting the economic, social and environmental outcomes of infrastructure projects, benchmarking ensures investments in the sector are effective and significant investments in major global infrastructure projects are prudently and effectively deployed. But what are the obstacles holding back consistent benchmarking across the industry? And how can we improve it?

    Within this global insight we provide an overview of benchmarking in the infrastructure sector for RICS members, discussing the types of benchmarking and the processes involved, and demonstrating examples of best practice.

    This paper also:
    - outlines the key benefits of benchmarking
    - discusses the use of data and analytics in modern benchmarking practices and
    - demonstrates the practical relevance of benchmarking through a series of case studies.

    This document was reissued in April 2023 as practice information. It had previously been published in August 2020 as an insight paper. No material changes have been made to the document.

  • Subcontracting

    Published April 2021
    Effective from 1 July 2021

    This guidance note covers most issues that can arise as a result of subcontracting on a major project, but some of these issues will not arise on most smaller projects. It is necessarily limited in its content and focuses on subcontracting in the context of building and civil engineering projects in the UK, but not private finance initiative (PFI) projects. It does not cover the management of subcontractors on site, or the role of suppliers of materials or goods.

    This is part of RICS' Black Book, which is a collection of technical practice documents that covers all processes throughout the construction project life cycle. The documents are essential development tools for junior professionals working through their APC and useful guides to best practice for more experienced professionals.

    A project is currently underway to review and update the Black Book content with the aim of producing a comprehensive new edition. Expected to publish in 2025, the new Black Book will comprise an overarching global professional standard, accompanied by practical guidance material.

  • The future of BIM: digital transformation in the UK construction and infrastructure sector

    Published July 2020
    Reissued April 2023

    The industry is now on the verge of the fourth industrial revolution: digitalisation is having a profound impact on the work itself, the way the industry works together, and it will drastically affect surveyors’ abilities to progress innovation and create better places and spaces for future generations. Building information modelling (BIM) and the accompanying use of a common data environment (CDE) form the bedrock of this transformation.

    As clients increasingly look to technology for solutions that create efficiencies, RICS professionals need to gain a better-informed understanding of the potential of BIM, how it is evolving, and vitally, how they can take advantage of its development to stay ahead of the curve.

    Within this practice information, we look at how BIM has evolved and merged into a much broader paradigm in the UK, and how this might set an example for other markets. As the UK transitioned from national to ISO standards, the focus has shifted from considering adoption and implementation of BIM as the end goal to using BIM and CDE as a catalyst to promote a holistic shift towards a model-driven approach to the design, delivery and operation of constructed assets.

    The practice information provides answers about the evolving ‘what’ and ‘why’ of BIM and its potential for surveyors, including:
    - the background to BIM
    - the need to innovate
    - why the development of the definition of BIM needs to be explored and
    - the need for surveyors to examine the digital technologies available, and a plan of action for implementing them.

    This document was reissued in April 2023 as practice information. It had previously been published in July 2020 as an insight paper. No material changes have been made to the document.

  • Artificial intelligence: what it means for the built environment (ARCHIVED)

    Published: 16 October 2017
    Archived: 27 September 2023

    This paper examines the current thinking, state-of-the-art applications and predictions surrounding AI to uncover many examples of how it will transform the way we work and how we can exploit it to improve the quality of the built environment.

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