All members of the RICS’s standards and regulation board sprung a major surprise yesterday when they tendered their resignation.

In a statement both on its website and within an email to members sent out yesterday evening, the organisation’s president and chair of governing council Ann Gray revealed that the chair of the RICS Standards and Regulation Board (SRB), Dame Janet Paraskeva, along with all its members, had opted to step down from their roles.

The members are Bruce Haswell, Leigh Miller, Richard Waterhouse and Dele Oyekanmi, plus five independents.

The SRB is responsible for exercising RICS’ regulatory functions, including strategy, governance, structure, policy and operational oversight in the public interest. It is independently led and reports to the governing council.

It also oversees the activities of RICS’ professional standards, entry and admission to the profession, education and qualification standards, regulatory operations, dispute resolution services and the Regulatory Tribunal.

A statement released by RICS last night, said: “RICS passionately believes in robust self-regulation in the public interest.

“We thank Dame Janet and her colleagues on the SRB for their service to RICS – their contributions have been immensely valuable across numerous areas including the new Rules of Conduct, fire safety and valuation.

“Our activities remain in full operation and there is no break in the continuity of regulatory functions.

“Our staff and governance bodies will continue to work on the assessment of professionals, the setting of professional standards and the regulation of the profession.

“We have begun the search for a replacement Chair and board members and look forward to working with them to drive forward RICS’ transformation programme.”