Register of Architects

From 1932 there has been a statutory Register of Architects under legislation of the United Kingdom Parliament originally enacted in 1931. The originating Act contained ancillary provisions for entering an architect’s name in the register and removing a name from it which later legislation has amended. The 1931 Act gave it the name “the Register of Registered Architects”, but by an Act of 1938 the name was changed to “the Register of Architects”.

Entry in the Register has always been upon voluntary application but subject to payment of an annual retention fee, and the legislation has always required the registration body to publish the current version of the Register annually.

The setting up of the Register had been the result of many years of negotiation by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the leading professional society for practising architects in the United Kingdom, which had been incorporated by charter granted by William IV in 1837.

Consultation on reform

The identity of he Register of Architects itself has continued unchanged, but under later primary legislation (of 1996 [ [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1996/1996053.htm Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act] ] /1997 [ [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/1997022.htm Architects Act 1997] ] ) some of the administrative or ancillary provisions were abolished, and some were altered having regard, among other things, to the use of data in electronic form in connection with maintenance of the Register and its annual publication. This happened after the Department of the Environment had issued a consultation document with the title “Reform of Architects Registration” in 1994, followed by the government introducing an amending bill in Parliament in 1996.

One of the alterations was that the name which had been given by the originating Act of 1931 to the body constituted as the proprietor and publisher of the Register was changed from the Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK) to the Architects Registration Board (ARB), with effect from 21 July 1997 [ [http://search.arb.org.uk/ The Register of Architects] ] .

Legislation

As an aid to statutory interpretation, the following summarises the series of enactments governing the Register from 1931 to 1997. The legislation at the time of the passing of the Architects Act 1997 (19 March) had been the Architects Registration Acts 1931 to 1996, namely,

*the Architects (Registration) Act, 1931;
*the Architects Registration Act, 1938;
*Part III of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, including, by section 125(1), the intricate tracery of amendments, transitional provisions and savings listed in Parts II and III of Schedule 2.

The legislation at the time of the passing of the 1996 Act (24 July) had been the Architects Registration Acts 1931 to 1969.

When the consolidation Act of 1997 which replaced the previous legislation was enacted the name of the proprietary body with the statutory duty to publish the Register of Architects was the Architects’ Registration Council of the United Kingdom. From 21 July 1997 when the 1997 Act took effect, the name of this body has been the Architects Registration Board, but that change of name did not change the identity of the Register of Architects itself, which has been in continuous existence from its inception under the originating Act of 1931.

to the 1997 Act made in June 2008 by Statutory Instrument established rules for the recognition of professional qualifications enabling migrants from the European Economic Area or Switzerland to register as architects in the United Kingdom. It also set out provisions for facilitating temporary and occasional professional services cross-border.

Further information

See articles listed on the Categories page for further information about:
*Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 to 1938
*Architects Act 1997
*Architects Registration Board
*Architects Registration in the United Kingdom
*Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom
*Architectural education in the United Kingdom (19c-20c)
*Board of Architectural Education
*Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
*Reform of Architects Registration
*Schools of Architecture, Architects (Registration) Act, 1931

ee also