ARB Publishes its Sixth Annual Report

ARB Publishes its Sixth Annual Report (07/08/2003)

ARB has now published its Annual Report for 2002/03. In this, the sixth such Report, the Board sets out the work and activities it has undertaken during the past year.

Chairman Judge Humphrey LLoyd QC comments:

“The Annual Report is an ideal means for the Board to tell users of architectural services and the profession about what it is doing. One typical issue can be singled out. With the co-operation of the schools of architecture, the RIBA and many others, the Board last year produced new procedures leading to the prescription of qualifications awarded by architectural schools offering vocational courses. They were devised to implement the criteria that the Board had published in the previous year and which set the standards that both the Board and the RIBA require of new architects. This is one of the ways in which architects should continue to have the confidence of the public and the profession.”

The Report highlights the following areas of the Board’s work (amongst others):

Education

• New process for prescribing qualifications agreed, which involves schools of architecture making submissions to ARB on the nature and quality of their qualifications

• Summaries of Board decisions on prescription following schools visits now published on ARB’s website

• Revised and improved procedures put in place for screening the potential of assessment candidates to meet the criteria of Parts 1 and 2

Registration

• Checked every registrant’s record (30,000+) on ARB’s database to ensure accuracy of detail

• Published the list of new admissions to the Register during 2002 in The Times

• Published guidance on routes to registration

Regulation

• Published guidance on unacceptable professional conduct and serious professional incompetence

• Advertised in 20 of the most accessed Yellow Pages directories to promote the benefits of using architects to the general public

• Continued dialogue with professional bodies and others to ensure that complaints and evidence of title abuse are passed to ARB and acted upon

Copies of ARB’s Annual Report 2002/03 are available on request.