The RICS has asked a former senior Whitehall official to chair a review of how the organisation operates.

Sir Bryan Carsberg, formerly director-general of the Office of Fair Trading, is to be appointed next month.

He will examine whether the RICS is carrying out properly its responsibility for regulating chartered surveyors.

The review, which will affect all the RICS’ 110,000 members, comes as other professions, such as accountancy, are under scrutiny over how they carry out their regulatory functions.

Carsberg could recommend that the RICS issues members with certificates of competence, in line with the Law Society, which carried out a similar inquiry into how it regulated lawyers.

The RICS review could also lead to firms, rather than individuals, being held responsible for malpractice.

An RICS spokesperson said the organisation was keen to look at the issue of certificates of competency. He said: “This review is all about continuing the maintenance of high public confidence in the chartered surveying profession at a time when others are under the microscope. RICS members should be regulated, but with a light touch.”

Carsberg will start the review next month and produce an interim report by November.

The final report will be delivered in February.