Select Page

The independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt was commissioned in July 2017 to urgently assess the effectiveness of current building and fire safety regulations and related compliance and enforcement issues, with a focus on multi occupancy high rise residential buildings. The Review is complementary to the ongoing Grenfell Tower public inquiry which is seeking to establish the facts behind the disaster.

The Review looked at the whole regulatory system as well as the people working within it and its final report, published 17 May 2018, noted the importance of assessing and ensuring appropriate levels of competence throughout the system. As part of this, the report identified an opportunity for government and the Architects Registration Board (ARB), as the regulator of the architects’ profession, to consider the competence of those on the Register of Architects as well as use the ARB’s current review of the UK standards of education for graduates to look critically at the level of fire safety design within those standards.

Karen Holmes, Registrar and Chief Executive of the ARB, said “ARB is committed to protecting those impacted by architect services and supporting architects through regulation. We welcome the opportunity to support the proposals of the Review’s report and work with partners to review the current and future level of fire safety design education and competence for architects involved in designing higher risk residential buildings”.

—ENDS—

————————————————————————————————————————–
Notes for Editors

ARB is the statutory body established by Parliament under the Architects Act 1997 to regulate the UK architects’ profession in the public interest. The Act requires ARB (among other things) to:

• Maintain the Register of Architects (Section 3)
• Prescribe qualifications for entry to the Register of Architects (Section 4)
• Deal with competence to practise (Section 9)
• Issue a Code which lays down standards of professional conduct and practice (Section 13)
• Regulate use of the title “architect” and prosecute those who use it unlawfully (Section 20)

ARB has a Board of 15 members, seven of whom are architects elected by the profession. The remaining eight are members of the public appointed by the Privy Council to represent the interests of consumers and users of architectural services.

Further information about our Criteria Review can be found on our website here.

For further information, please contact Kate Howlett, Communications Lead on 020 7580 5861 or by email at KateH@arb.org.uk.