Two bodies responsible for nominating adjudicators are taking action to rid their membership of poor performers..

The RICS and the Association of Independent Construction Adjudicators are acting in response to the increasing cost, value and complexity of the disputes being referred to adjudication.

The AICA has informed its 115 members that it intends to purge more than half of them from its list. All 115 will have to reapply for one of 50 available places on the reformed panel, which will be launched on 1 March.

Adjudicators outside the AICA can apply to be on the panel.

Meanwhile, the RICS dispute resolution policy committee intends to force all its 120 adjudicators in the UK to undertake reassessments every three years.

Karen Read, assistant to the director at RICS dispute resolution services, said the process was designed "to ensure the best possible standards among adjudicators".

This is to ensure the best possible standards among adjudicators

Karen Read, RICS dispute resolution services

The reassessment will involve an interview with three assessors, who will scrutinise three recent decisions taken by the adjudicator.

Read said that adjudicators who passed the interview would remain on the RICS adjudicator panel, although she refused to be drawn on the fate of those who failed. She did add that adjudicators would have the right to appeal against the assessors' decision, and that training could be offered where assessors identified a need.

The two groups nominate adjudicators when asked to by the parties to a dispute.

Senior QS sources say that the RICS' plan to rename its construction faculty to better represent their sector is now a "done deal". It will be renamed the quantity surveying and construction faculty after the proposal was put to the RICS' international governing council.