TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked Graham Mills 26th - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked Graham Mills 26th November 2009 Chair – TSA Technical Committee Peter Barker Vice Chair - TSA Technical Committee

2 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked What are guidance notes and how they apply to utility surveyors - 1 • TSA are involved with both RICS and CICES via the Survey Liaison Group. • RICS recently produced a discussion paper concerning the naming of guides and information papers with a view to establishing common terminology. • The definitions used below concerning our document are taken from this discussion paper. o Guidance notes are usually of 40 pages + in nature, proscriptive and generally outline how to ‘do’ som ething. They do not usually contain com m entary or opinion and m ay allude but o not significantly state research findings. They do not usually com e in leaflet or gatefold form at and are alw ays o A4. Guidance notes provide advice on aspects of the profession. o

3 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked What are guidance notes and how they apply to utility surveyors - 2 Where procedures are recom m ended for specific professional tasks, these o are intended to em body 'best practice', ie procedures w hich in the opinion of the SLG m eet a high standard of professional com petence. Mem bers are not required to follow the advice and recom m endations o contained in guidance notes. They should how ever note the follow ing points. When an allegation of professional negligence is m ade against a surveyor, o the Court is likely to take account of the contents of any relevant guidance notes in deciding w hether or not the surveyor had acted w ith reasonable com petence. In the opinion of the SLG, a Mem ber conform ing to the practices o recom m ended in guidance notes should have at least a partial defence to an allegation of negligence by virtue of having follow ed those practices. How ever, Mem bers have the responsibility of deciding w hen it is o appropriate to follow the guidance. If it is follow ed in an appropriate case, the Mem ber w ill not be exonerated m erely because the recom m endations w ere found in a guidance note.

4 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked What are guidance notes and how they apply to utility surveyors - 3 On the other hand, it does not follow that a Mem ber w ill be adjudged negligent if o he has not follow ed the practices recom m ended in guidance notes. It is for each individual surveyor to decide on the appropriate procedure to follow in any professional task. How ever, w here Mem bers depart from the practice recom m ended in guidance o notes, they should do so only for good reason. In the event of litigation, the Court m ay require them to explain w hy they decided not to adopt the recom m ended practice. In addition, guidance notes are relevant to professional com petence in that each o surveyor should be up to date and should have inform ed him self of guidance notes w ithin a reasonable tim e of their prom ulgation.

5 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The background to the development of the guidance note - 1 I am now handing over to Peter Barker to take you through the guidance note itself.

6 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The background to the development of the guidance note - 1 • In September 2006 a group of seven companies involved in utility surveys met under the chairmanship of Nigel Knowles to discuss concerns over standards within the sector. • Initial thoughts were to set up a new association to represent the interests of those working in utility survey. • Commonsense prevailed with a decision made to take forward the issues under the patronage of TSA. • Some companies were already involved with the TSA but others, including my own company, were not members. This was rectified soon the following year.

7 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The background to the development of the guidance note - 2 • During 2007 it was decided to produce two documents relating to utility surveys A two page ‘executive o summary’ & A detailed guidance o note • The executive summary was published on the TSA website in January 2008

8 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The background to the development of the guidance note - 3 Work started on the detailed guidance note in February 2008. It’s taken twenty months to get to this!

9 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The development of the guidance note - 1 We were very keen to consult widely within the industry with two prim e objectives: • To ensure that we knew how the surveyors already active in the market went about their work. This allowed us to establish what was ‘best practice’. • To ensure that the document, when published, would be widely accepted by both surveyors and their clients.

10 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The development of the guidance note - 2 How did we go about the consultation? • We needed something for the consultees to look at so that they had an idea of what the format and content of the final document would likely be. • We therefore produced a 17 page first draft which was sent out for the first round of consultation in September 2008. • This was sent out to a number of TSA members including those companies who took part in the NUAG / TSA focus group. • In addition survey companies and a number of equipment manufacturers or their agents who were active in the market but not TSA members were consulted mainly through visits.

11 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The development of the guidance note - 3 Who responded to the consultation? • To date we have had 17 companies and organisations respond to the consultation who are not represented on either the TSA Council nor technical committee. • This is in addition to the many responses from the TSA Council members and the technical committee. • Respondees include other associations, professional institutions, universities, HSE, the insurance industry and equipment manufacturers.

12 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The development of the guidance note - 4 What were the results of the consultation and how have we used them ? • The responses received have been well considered and wide ranging which have enhanced the document immeasurably. • They have been received since September 2008 and are still being received in November 2009. • The comments are progressively fed into the document as they were received. • We now stand at Draft 8.j ie eight major drafts of which the last has been modified ten times.

13 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The development of the guidance note - 5 When and how will the docum ent be updated after this launch? • The document is to be considered as a ‘living draft’. It will continue to be updated with new techniques, equipment, methodologies and advice so that it will continue to reflect ‘best practice’ as the industry advances. • This will be done by keeping it as a pdf document downloadable from the TSA website. Issue numbers and dates will be shown on each page of the document so that there will be no doubt as to which version is being used. Both high and low resolution versions will be available. • We anticipate updated versions will be produced and issued as required but at a maximum interval of a year. • Comments will always be gratefully received!

14 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The structure and content of the guidance note - 1 The rest of the presentation looks at the structure and content of the guidance note. You can follow this in the printed copy distributed earlier as section and page numbers are given as well as a thumb-nail image of the relevant page.

15 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The structure and content of the guidance note - 1 How is the docum ent organised? • The document is to split up into 15 sections each addressing the various key aspects of a utility survey. • There are also 9 appendices with charts, examples, commentaries etc. complementing and elaborating upon the main content. • Two of these appendices have yet to be written.

16 26th November 2009 TS A Utility S urvey Guidance Note unpacked The structure and content of the guidance note - 2 Section 1 – Introduction, page 3 A key aspect of the document is the statement of its two objectives. The first addresses the clients: To provide those com m issioning utility surveys w ith an understanding of w hat is involved so that the process of specifying, bidding, and executing utility surveys is efficient and appropriate. The client should have realistic expectations of w hat can be achieved on site, w hat tim escales are likely to be involved and the cost benefit of the chosen m ethodology. This in turn enables the client to quantify project risks associated w ith existing utilities on the site and the cost of m itigating these risks.