Under its Rainbow Standards initiative, the RICS has created a suite of colour-coded guidebooks that provide a set of minimum professional standards: red for estate managers, blue for residential surveyors, purple for facilities managers and now, a Black Book for QSs. This programme explains the reasoning behind the Black Book.

About the contributors

Andrew Smith is Commercial Director at Laing O'Rourke with 20 years experience in UK building. He is a member of the QS & Construction Professional Group Board and chairs the Black Book Steering Group. He is also an APC assessor.

Stuart Earl, a partner in Gleeds, is the new chair of the RICS QS and Construction Professional Group.

In 2006 Stuart helped steer the update of the APC qualification rules and in 2008 he was appointed chair of the RICS Measurement Initiative which resulted in the New Rules of Measurement.


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