Contents

- Composition of the Board

- Regulations made by ARCUK

- 2 Questions : How does the Architects Registration Board answer inquiries?

- The wider remit : an observation on the claim of former Board chairman Humphrey Lloyd that "Arb only fulfils its statutory role, no more".

- 2006 election results : The profession votes for reform.

- A new Registrar.  On 17 March 2006 the resignation of Robin Vaughan, Chief Executive and Registrar was announced.  AARUK considers the possibilities for his replacement.

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The "Wider Remit"

In a letter to the editor of Building Design, published on 24 February 2006, Mr Humphrey Lloyd QC, then chairman of the Architects Registration Board, said: ... "Arb only fulfils its statutory role, no more" ...

This contradicts the policy adopted by the Board when it first took up its powers.  The first chairman Dr Barbara Kelly considered this freedom from statutory constraint so important that she wrote to all the architects on the Register, saying:

... "You might not be aware that in addition to the statutory functions ARB is undertaking in place of ARCUK, ARB's remit is considerably wider" ...

AARUK knows of nothing showing that the Board has ever contradicted this statement.  When in 2004 the Board's solicitor was asked from where the powers for this "wider remit" were derived, he replied with the novel proposition that they were "extra-statutory powers", clearly overlooking the rule for public authorities that "what is not permitted [by Statute] is prohibited".

AARUK invites inquirers and policy-makers to consider whether the Board's persistent adherence to the "wider remit" calls Mr Lloyd's accuracy and objectivity into question when he says his purpose is "To repeat some basic facts ...".

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