The House of Lords has waded in to the debate on visa rules for foreign quantity surveyors.

A question put to the government in March by Lord Jones of Cheltenham asked if it would add QSs and project managers to the UK skills shortage list and relax the rules on granting work permits to qualified QSs and project managers.

Jones drew the government’s attention to an article in Building on 16 February highlighting the problem.

The response from Baroness Scotland was that, although the addition of QSs to the skills shortage list was under consideration, there were “no plans to revise the rules on granting extended work permits to suitably qualified quantity surveyors and construction project managers”.

She added that the RICS had not campaigned for the addition of project managers to the skills shortage list.