In the United Kingdom, the Architects Act 1997 imposes restrictions on the use of the name, style or title "architect" in connection with a business or a professional practice, and for that purpose requires a statutory Register of Architects to be maintained. The Architects Registration Board constituted under the Act is responsible for Architects Registration in the United Kingdom and is required to publish the current version of the Register annually. Every person who is entitled to be registered under the Act has the right to be entered in the register. The act consolidated previous enactments originating with the Architects (Registration) Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. 33) as amended by the Architects Registration Act 1938. It applies to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Section 2 of the act prescribes that the board shall appoint and regulate the functions ascribed to the Registrar. The Act refers to the Registrar by the masculine pronoun in the singular, but by the usual rules of statutory interpretation,Interpretation Act 1978. this is not limited to an individual male person.
An amendment under the European Communities Act 1972 came into force on 20 June 2008.
The recurring controversy about whether statutory protection of title serves useful purposes has been intensified by the legislative impact of the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices implemented in May 2008 by two Statutory Instruments under the European Communities Act 1972, namely No 1276 (Trade Descriptions)S.I. 2008 1276 and No 1277 (Consumer Protection).S.I. 2008 1277
For the purposes of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, "regulatory function" is defined in subsection 32(2).
Use of the title "architect"
Under subsection 20(1) of the Architects Act 1997, a person in the United Kingdom may only practise or carry on business under any name, style or title containing the word "architect" if registered. There is no restriction on its use in any other circumstance. The words in the current Act follow those of the 1938 Architects Registration Act under which it was decided that the use of the suffix "FRIBA" in business notepaper constituted an infringement.
By subsection 20(3) corporate bodies, firms or partnerships can carry on business under a name, style or title containing the word "architect" provided that (in broad terms) the architectural business is run by a registered person. However the statutory registration Board may (by rules made under subsection 20(4) – see General Rules, Rule 25) effectively limit the application of subsection 20(3) to those corporate bodies firms or partnerships who have supplied information necessary for determining whether the architectural business is run by a registered person.
The rule-making power under subsection 20(4) appears to be limited to prescribing particular information to be provided to the Board viz. "such information necessary for statutory registration determining whether [subsection 20(3)] applies". The subsection makes no provision for levying any fee.
Background to legislation
Up to the 1990s
Opinions had been divided for well over a century about the merits of statutory registration of architects in the United Kingdom. The result was that Parliament, as the legislator and guided by the government of the day, has had to maintain a state of benevolent neutrality among the holders of these contending views, consistent with more general public policies for business competition, employment, professional education and so on. In relation to statutory protection of title, three aspects of the field in which architects practise invite examination. In summary:
The design quality of the built environment: this is essentially a cultural concern which was and remains one of the principal reasons for the formation and continuance of the Royal Institute of British Architects as a chartered body. It has connotations not only for the United Kingdom but world wide. It is beyond the ambit of statutory protection of title. The technical sufficiency of buildings: the public interest is secured in the United Kingdom under Building Regulations and other enactments. This too is beyond the statutory protection of the title "architect". The business of architectural practice: contracts of engagement for professional services are always between a business entity (whether individual, firm, partnership, or company) and the client, and are governed by the general law, including consumer protection legislation where applicable. Protection of the title 'architect' for business entities is of no practical relevance for securing the performance of architectural services.
In the light of experience since the inception of the Register under the 1931 Act, and more particularly under the Architects Registration Board’s regime from 1997, the recurring question has been whether protection of title serves useful purposes in respect of the three aspects mentioned above. The question of obsolescence has been further intensified by the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, effective from 2007.
Statutory registration had its origin within the architectural profession in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was then (as now) a matter of controversy. However, by 1905 the RIBA had established a policy to secure satisfactory training of architects by statutory means.
The basis of the policy (on registration) had always been that the profession was governed by voluntary associations of practising architects and that the profession would retain control of registration. This was reflected in the composition of the registration body (the Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom – ARCUK) established by the 1931 Act. Shortly after, in the book published on occasion of the Institute's centenary celebration in 1934,The Growth and Work of the Royal Institute of British Architects edited by J. A. Gotch PPRIBA John Alfred Gotch
. in the concluding paragraphs of the chapter on statutory registration.,In this chapter the author includes an informative account of the history of registration quoting extensively an article published in the RIBA Journal of 8 August 1931 by Charles MacArthur Butler, Secretary of the RIBA Registration Committee and first Registrar to ARCUK. Harry Barnes FRIBA., Chairman of the Registration Committee, wrote: ... I do not conceive the purpose of the Registration Act to be that of protecting the Architectural profession. The interests of the Profession are of course legitimate but are best served by the Architectural Associations in which some 80 per cent of those practising architecture are to be found.
The object of the Registration Act is to ensure to the public that the architects they employ possess capacity and character.
Under the purview of the Board of Architectural Education no one will enjoy the title of 'Registered Architect' without giving evidence of his capacity, and under that of the Discipline Committee no one will retain the title whose character has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
The Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom can never, therefore, on this view be a rival of any Architectural Association and least of all of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The Architects' Registration Council stands at the gateway of the realm of Architectural practice, but within that realm the affairs of the Architect are best administered by those voluntary Associations to which he has allied himself and over the actions of which he has complete control.
After more than half a century times have changed and a regime of quite another kind has been installed under the 1997 Act.
From the 1990s
By the 1990s it was almost universally accepted that the time had come to bring the statutory Architects' Registration Council as it then was to an end. Opinion within the profession was divided among those who held that statutory registration should be discontinued altogether and those who held that the registration body should be reconstituted.
In the event the body was reconstituted as the Architects Registration Board (1996/1997 Acts). But it was only after the event that many in the profession came to appreciate the effect of the new requirement that the majority of the Board should be non-architects and appointed by the government, as the following quotation shows: Crucially, professional control of the Register was taken away by the government's decision which was realised in the 1996/97 Act. This had not been generally expected by those of the membership who before then had been in favour of continuing protection of the title 'architect'. The significance and effect of the change is now becoming more widely understood. (Report of the Royal Institute of British Architects Council's Task Group on the Architects Registration Board, September 2004.)
Statutory registration – chronology of key events 1834 – The body which was to become the Royal Institute of British Architects (originally known as the Institute of British Architects in London) was formed by Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey and several prominent architects. (After the grant of the charter it had become known as the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, eventually dropping the reference to London in 1892.)about the RIBA Charter and Byelaws |Text of the Charter and Byelaws
1837 – It was granted its royal charter under William IV.
1884 – Society of Architects formed, after a campaign by a group of ARIBA to be allowed to vote on RIBA affairs had been resisted by FRIBA.
1887 – Architects and Engineers Registration Act Committee formed as an independent committee to promote a bill for registration of architects, engineers and surveyors. The bill was withdrawn after chief bodies representing engineers petitioned against it.
1889 and 1891 – Architects Registration Bill Committee put forward bills for registration of architects, which were strongly supported by the Society of Architects but opposed by an independent group of prominent architects and artists.
1892 – Papers published, defining the profession of architecture: Norman Shaw and T G Jackson (eds.), "Architecture, A Profession or an Art". William H White, "The Architect and his artists, an essay to assist the public in considering the question is architecture a profession or an art".
1902 – Architects Registration Bill Committee amalgamated with the Society of Architects as a joint Registration Committee.
1905 – RIBA Education Policy was adopted for statutory powers to secure satisfactory training for architects by way of registration of title, by and through the RIBA.
1908 – RIBA Licentiate Class formed, for architects who could show evidence of competence, without exams. On closure in 1913, over 2000 had been accepted.
1924–1959 – RIBA Standing Registration Committee.
1925 – Amalgamation of RIBA and Society of Architects: most of the Society of Architects members transferred to Licentiate class, which was reopened.
1927 – RIBA Registration Committee has draft bill introduced in Parliament, but opposed by the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors and the Faculty of Architects and Surveyors.
1931 – Bill recast and enacted as the Architects (Registration) Act 1931, enabling the Register of Architects to be established under a statutory body called the Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK). The Council was to be made up of representatives of all architectural bodies in the United Kingdom in proportion to the numbers of their memberships on the Register, and representatives from government departments and related professional bodies. Under ARCUK, the RIBA system of exams etc. was accepted for registration. (The provisions of the Act constituting the Board of Architectural Education were repealed when ARCUK was reconstituted as ARB in 1996/7.)