Our call for a competence-led approach to architects’ regulation 

RIBA is calling for a new regulatory approach to the built environment that focuses on public protection through reserved activities delivered by competent professionals. 

Under the current regulatory system for UK architects, only the title ‘architect’ is legally restricted, with no oversight of the competence of those who undertake architectural services or activities. This means anyone can perform the work of an architect, as long as they do not call themselves one. This does nothing to ensure quality or safety and places an unnecessary financial burden on the profession with little demonstrable public benefit.

What are we recommending?

There should be defined activities reserved to suitably competent professionals in relation to full planning applications, building control applications and final compliance certificates

This would bring us into alignment with the position in most developed economies. While recognising that this may not cover all controlled building work in its entirety, it should cover all significant building work where multiple consultants and contractors are appointed.

To achieve this new framework, we suggest: 

Repealing the Architects Act 1997

The Architects Act is the current legislation that regulates the use of the title ‘architect’ in the UK. Regulating title alone offers no oversight over the competence of those who undertake architectural services or activities, therefore, we recommend repealing the act. 

Replacing the Architects Act with new legislation that sets out reserved activities 

A new piece of legislation for the built environment could be modelled on the Legal Services Act, which restricts certain legal activities to various groupings of qualified professionals. Our proposed legislation would set out exactly which suitably competent professionals were able to undertake the reserved functions, set out above. 

This model would set out a clear statutory framework and would clearly define reserved activities helping deliver public protection. It would also provide a high level of accountability and assurance for protecting safety if applied to all significant building works. 

Oversight of the competence requirements of construction industry professional bodies should be by a Built Environment Council

The government should create a Built Environment Council that oversees the construction industry chartered professional bodies whose members are the suitably competent professionals. These professionals would then undertake reserved functions set out in the new legislation. 

Further information

For more information about our proposals, see our professional feature written by our Practice team.