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- Judicial interpretation relating to Part III : some useful guidance on the meaning of "standards", "serious" and "unacceptable". - Discipline and questionable PCC decisions : powers, duties and criticisms of the PCC. - Case Study 1 : procedural irregularities and two perverse decisions in consideration of charges brought under Code Standard 8. - Case Study 2 (Part 1) : a similar case, involving the apprehension of a real possibility of bias. - Case Study 2 (continued - Part 2) : the PCC decide – and a question of incongruity arises. - Note on Part III of the Architects Act 1997 - should the legislation be further amended to save the Board from the charge of jactitation of power? - Case Study 2 (continued - Part 3) - QC advises that the architect has an obvious and complete defence. - Case Study 2 (continued - Part 4) - "Judicial nonsense". - Case Study 2 (continued - Part 5) - A Court decision in favour of the architect. - Case Study 2 (continued - Parts 6, 7 and 8) - (6) The Court rules architect's application for judicial review "plainly justified" - 14 October 2008; (7) the case is remitted by Consent Order of the High Court - 21 August 2009; and (8) the proceedings are withdrawn - 7 April 2010. - Case Study 2 (continued - Parts 9 and 10) - Report on outcome of proceedings. - Case Study 2 (continued - Part 11) - How the Board deals with the result. Case Study 2 (continued - Part 12) - ARB misclaims "new evidence". Case Study 2 (continued - Part 13) - New Guidance - December 2010. (11) The architect's open letter for openness. Following the Note in Part 10 of this case study (see above), after reading an open letter which the architect has addressed to the Board chairman, this contributor (in the few days before the Board meeting) remains hopeful that the Board will not fail to heed the correspondent who is reported as writing: "I realise I have to pay for the ARB's past reading of the Act, but I don't at all want to pay for them to repeat their mistake". The letter referred to is reproduced here.
(12) ARB misclaims "new evidence"
The ARB has now (June 2010) disclosed
documents in response to a
Freedom of Information Act inquiry which confirm that its spokesperson was
in error when informing a reporter for the professional press (AJ) that there
had been "new evidence" as a reason for withdrawing the allegation at the
hearing on 7 April 2010.
It is difficult for an independent observer who has had the benefit of reading
all of the documents produced by the ARB in response to the inquiry, and who has
seen the transcript of the hearing (and who had been present at that and the
previous hearings), to put on the ARB's claim a construction other than that it
was due to the maker's ignorance, if it was not due to dissembling with intent
to avoid the consequences of the unwelcome fact that As reported in Part 9 of this case study the architect's challenge had been to the validity of the revised Code Standard 8 introduced by the ARB in November 2001 and the attempt to use disciplinary proceedings to enforce it. Part 10 remarked that it must be at least as well known to the Registrar as to this contributor that the architect's solicitor had made the clear and uncontradicted statement that the point at issue had been "not a question of reasonableness but one of legality”. If the ARB is now to proceed in a manner which is legally, morally and ethically acceptable, it should be properly informed. Part 10 also called attention to the continuing use by the ARB of the PII tick box demands in apparent disregard of the revised Code now in operation, and to the falsehood printed on them: "Can it be otherwise than that two of the statements or assertions [on the forms] are known to be false by the Registrar and by members of the Board and by the Board's advising solicitors...?" (13) New Guidance - December 2010 It is unfortunate that the ARB leaflet headed "Guidance and Information, Professional Indemnity Insurance" issued to those on the Register in December 2010 is marred by the statement inserted as the first paragraph. The rest of the document can be welcomed as timely. But it is also several years overdue, as can be seen from "The Status of the ARB" issued by the RIBA, May 2003, and the narrative of events reported in Case Studies 1 and 2. The leaflet is made available for official, professional and public consumption. The genesis and content of the first paragraph statement can be seen as consistent with a wish of the present Registrar and Board members to help certain wongdoing on the part of their predecessors in office pass into corporate oblivion. That could be a merciful relief to nearly all who have been involved in the sorry affair (not least the firm of solicitors practising from offices in Putney, West London who have been involved in the matter throughout). But is it sufficient to redress the injustice meted out to any of the three architects of the Case Studies? A significant part of the story can be seen here. [ top] |
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