The Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) provides cost and price data for the UK

construction industry Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the ...

. Founded as part of the

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional body for those working in the Built Environment, Construction, Land, Property and Real Estate. The RICS was founded in London in 1868. It works at a cross-governmental ...

(RICS), it is now a standalone company.

History

BCIS was set up in 1961 to provide the profession with cost information in elemental format and to promote the use of elements and of elemental cost planning. The BCIS "Standard Form of Cost Analysis" (SFCA) remained an industry staple, largely unchanged, until the late 2000s. In 2012 the "New Rules of Measurement" for cost management throughout the construction process were accompanied by a modernised version of the SFCA. In 2022, the BCIS was spun out of RICS.

Costing data

The BCIS approach is the most popular costing method employed by

quantity surveyor In the construction industry, a quantity surveyor (QS) is a professional with expert knowledge of construction costs and contracting. Qualified professional quantity surveyors can be known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) i ...

s in the UK. BCIS manages the Price Adjustment Formulae Indices (PAFI) series, which provides price adjustment indices for building, civil engineering and highways maintenance costs, which can be used to inform inflationary adjustment clauses in contracts. BCIS material refers to the terms "NEDO", "Baxter" and "Osborne" as erroneously applied to these indices.BCIS
Index linked inflation adjustment clauses in contracts
published on 12 April 2022, accessed on 14 April 2025

References

{{authority control Construction organizations