The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has published its Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2021.
The Annual Report, which has also been laid in Parliament, details how ARB has carried out its work as an independent professional regulator, established as a statutory body through the Architects Act 1997.
It includes key facts and figures for the Architects Register and ARB’s regulatory activities in 2021, including:
- The number of architects on the Register remained stable. There were 42,170 architects on the Register compared to an equivalent figure of 42,340 in 2020.
- There were 1,182 new admissions to the Register from the UK route and 324 from EU routes.
- ARB prescribed 10 new architecture qualifications, renewed 30 existing qualifications (more than double the number for 2020) and ran 147 annual monitoring assessments.
- ARB received 160 complaints (compared to 154 in 2020) and investigated 326 incidents of misuse of the title ‘architect’.
Alongside this, in 2021 ARB:
- Published a new five-year Corporate Strategy for 2022-2026 that includes continuous improvements in regulatory services; modernising the initial education and training of architects; developing a new model of continuing professional development; and transforming our systems, processes and technology.
- Undertook a major engagement survey on proposed principles for our continuing professional development scheme.
- Published a discussion paper to invite views on why and how we want to modernise initial education and training of architects.
- Consulted on and subsequently published new guidance on fire and life safety and environmental sustainability for institutions offering ARB-recognised qualifications. We also published guidelines for registered architects on these topics.
- Continued to make progress with the development of our new international routes to registration and agreements, including engaging in discussions with our counterpart regulators in Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
- Sought to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the profession by promoting the use of data about its current makeup, launching the review of education and training with the aim of improving routes into the profession and actively engaging with underrepresented groups.
- Set out a bold ambition for radical overhaul of our IT systems and to make our services more accessible and easier to use for architects, higher education institutions and stakeholders.
