The cost of registration

Under the Architects Act, section 8, the Board may require registered persons to pay a retention fee of a prescribed amount if they wish their names to be retained in the Register in any calendar year after that in which the names were entered. 

The cost of the retention fee may be correlated with changes in the Retail Prices Index to show that the cost of retention, in real terms, has risen greatly.  See a graph.

Although the Architects Act is notable in that it makes no reference whatever to regulation, the Architects Registration Board has taken that role upon itself.  In his forward to the 2005 Report of the Better Regulation Commission (authors of " Less is More"), Sir David Arculus said: "Perhaps our most important achievement has been to put the spotlight on the cost of regulation ... We have estimated that the cost of regulation to the UK economy is between 10% - 12% of GDP - or over £100 billion - similar to the annual take in income tax ..." 

The Prime Minister, in a speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research said: "Not every 'scandal' requires a regulatory response.  Bad people will find a way round the law no matter how good the law is.  Spending hundreds of millions of pounds to reduce the risk to zero may be a foolish way of prioritising".

Since its establishment in 1997, the Architects Registration Board has secured penalties against an average of less than four architects a year.  There are about 30,000 on the register.  The cost to the profession of registration during that period has been approximately £15 million.

The amendment to the Architects Act of June 2008

Regulations which came into force on 20 June 2008 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. These regulations set out provisions for facilitating temporary and occasional professional services cross-border, and also provide for applicants seeking to establish themselves on a stable basis in the United Kingdom.

The Architects (Recognition of European Qualifications etc and Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations may be found on the legislation page.  An appraisal of the Regulations may be found here ( pdf version for printing).