![1931 Act ed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/1931_Act_ed.jpg)
The Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 to 1938 is the statutory citation for three Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, namely:
* Architects (Registration) Act 1931;
* Architects (Registration) Act 1934; and
* Architects Registration Act 1938.
These Acts have been amended and have been replaced as amended by the
Architects Act 1997
The Architects Act 1997 (c. 22) is the consolidating Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the keeping and publishing of the statutory Register of Architects by the Architects Registration Board. It has the long title: ''An Act to conso ...
, with effect from 21 July 1997.
From ARCUK in 1931 to ARB in 1997
Extent and citation of the Acts
By subsection 18(1), the originating Act of 1931 was to come into operation on 1 January 1932, save as otherwise provided in the Act; and by subsection 18(2), it was to extend to
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
only if an
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...
was made to that effect. On the 1938 Act coming into force, the 1931 Act was to be construed as one with the Architects (Registration) Act, 1934 and the Architects Registration Act, 1938; those three Acts could be cited together as the Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 to 1938; and in the 1938 Act the expression "principal Act" meant the Architects (Registration) Act, 1931.
Formation and duties of ARCUK
The Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 to 1938 required the Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK) ("the Council") to set up, maintain and publish annually a register, in the manner prescribed by the Acts.
By subsection 3(1) of the 1931 Act the Council was to be a body corporate by the name of the
Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom {{noref, date=December 2011
Under an Act passed by the UK Parliament in 1931, there was established an Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK), referred to in the Act as "the Council". The constitution of the Council was pres ...
, and it was expressed to be established for the purposes of the Act.
Architects Act 1997
The governing Act for the keeping and publication of the Register in the prescribed manner is now the
Architects Act 1997
The Architects Act 1997 (c. 22) is the consolidating Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the keeping and publishing of the statutory Register of Architects by the Architects Registration Board. It has the long title: ''An Act to conso ...
. Its
long title
In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.
The ...
is:
: ''An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to architects''.
Amendments which had been made by Part III of the
Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its long title shows that it is a piece of omnibus legislation:
:''An Act to make provision for grants and other assistance for housing pur ...
included (subsection 118(1)) renaming the
Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom {{noref, date=December 2011
Under an Act passed by the UK Parliament in 1931, there was established an Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK), referred to in the Act as "the Council". The constitution of the Council was pres ...
(ARCUK) as the
Architects Registration Board
The Architects Registration Board (ARB) is the statutory body for the registration of architects in the United Kingdom. It operates under the Architects Act 1997 as amended, a consolidating Act. It began under the Architects (Registration) Act, ...
(ARB). The 1996 Act also enacted the abolition of the statutory
Board of Architectural Education
The Board of Architectural Education is no longer appointed. It had been a statutory body in the United Kingdom constituted under section 5 of the Architects (Registration) Act, 1931.
The Act was citable with two amending Acts as the Architects ...
(subsection 118(2)).
The effect of the 1996 Act was to repeal part of the Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 to 1938 as then amended, and to amend and add to other parts. Those Acts, as amended by the 1996 Act, were then
repealed
A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...
by the
consolidation Act of 1997, which thereafter became the governing Act.
Subsection 13(1) of the Architects (Registration) Act, 1931 had conferred on the Council (ARCUK) a limited power to make regulations to prescribe anything which by the Act was specifically required or authorised to be prescribed (such as, the annual retention fee or regulating meetings and procedure of the Council) and "generally for carrying out or facilitating the purposes of the Act". But under subsection 13(2) any such regulations would have no force or validity unless previously approved by the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
in the manner prescribed by section 13.
The Board now has limited powers under the Architects Act 1997 to make
rules
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education
* Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia
Human activity
* The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power
* Business rule, a rule perta ...
in the manner prescribed by the Act, but not to make
regulations
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...
. This has not stopped the Board using the word "regulation" in ways which appear to be at some variance with the contemporary usage of Parliament as the
legislator
A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
, or with the usage of persons or bodies practising in the regulatory field as commonly understood, such as: "regulation of the use of title" and "regulation of all aspects relating to the conduct and discipline of architects". These are certainly more than overstatements of the very limited powers for which the Board was actually reconstituted under the 1996/1997 legislation, which gave the Board no power over architects or the supply of architectural services as such, and where the restraint on the use of title is in fact prescribed by the legislation and not delegated to the Board, whose main function under the Architects Act 1997 is no more than to maintain and publish the
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 re ...
in the manner prescribed by the Act, its other functions being ancillary to that function, which in turn is for the purpose of enabling
prosecutors
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
and
courts
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
to ascertain whether a person is liable to conviction for infringement of the restriction on the use of "architect".
EU Directives and qualifications
It can be inferred that some risk of conceptual confusion about regulation has resulted from an apparent need to let the native language accommodate terms derived from the habitual idiom of
Directives and other documents issued by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, formerly known as the
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
, including
Directive 85/384/EEC
Directive may refer to:
* Directive (European Union), a legislative act of the European Union
* Directive (programming), a computer language construct that specifies how a compiler should process input
* "Directive" (poem), a poem by Robert Frost
...
, referred to in the Architects Act 1997 in connection with the recognition of qualifications acquired in an EEA State (
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...
). The Directive, of 10 June 1985, was headed "on the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications in architecture, including measures to facilitate the effective exercise of the right of establishment and freedom to provide services".
The legitimate purposes of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
include
: ''"the abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles to the free movement of persons and services"''.
This has been regularly recited in EU Directives, such as 2005/36/EC of 7 September 2005 "on recognition of professional qualifications". That abolishing of obstacles has brought in its train a series of Directives by which the EEC/
EC/
EU had been carrying out its functions vis-à-vis Member States in connection with the mutual recognition of the qualifications of architects and certain other professions. It was pursuant to those Directives that a person from one Member State (or certain other states) wishing to practise in another might be required to produce a certificate of qualification; and that in the United Kingdom, the Architects Registration Board has been acting as the "Competent Authority" in respect of architects.
Revised arrangements were introduced in June 2008, pursuant to EU Directive 2005/36/EC. This Directive defines "competent authority" among other things as a body empowered by a Member State specifically to receive the applications and to take the decisions referred to in the Directive; and "regulated profession" as a professional activity one of the modes of pursuit of which is subject by virtue of legislative provision to the possession of specific professional qualifications.
From grant, 1932 to denial of right, 1942
The statutory Register of Architects
By subsection 3(3) of the originating Act of 1931 the statutory register was to be called the Register of Registered Architects. This was changed to the
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 re ...
by subsection 3(3) of the 1938 Act, with effect from 1 August 1940. The name the Register of Architects has continued unchanged, and remains so under the Architects Act 1997.
"...take and use..."
The
long title
In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.
The ...
of the 1931 Act was:
: ''An Act to provide for the Registration of architects and for purposes connected therewith.''
and under section 10 persons who were entitled to apply for registration could thereby claim "to take and use the name or title 'Registered Architect' ", as a statutory right, with effect from 1932.
Penal restriction
That was radically altered by the 1938 Act, as its
long title
In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.
The ...
indicates:
: ''An Act to restrict the use of the name Architect to Registered Architects and to extend the time within which practising architects may apply for registration''.
Among other things, by section 1 of the 1938 Act, with effect from 1 August 1940, section 10 of the 1931 Act would be replaced by subsection 1(1) of the 1938 Act. The effect of this was that, instead of allowing qualified persons to use a statutory title if they chose to apply for it, restrictions on the use of the vernacular word "architect" were introduced which were to apply to all persons, including fully qualified practising members of the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
or other chartered bodies, or societies or associations, of architects; and this innovation was imposed under threat of penalty on prosecution in the
magistrates' courts
A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings.
Courts
* Magistrates' court (England and Wales)
* Magistrate's Cour ...
.
Recommended abolition
When the
Warne Report
The Warne Report, Crown copyright. was published by the United Kingdom Government in 1993. It was referred to in a government consultation paper on Reform of Architects Registration dated 19 July 1994. Eventually, certain changes to the Archite ...
was published in 1993, it was found that its principal recommendation was abolition of protection of the title "architect" and the disbanding of ARCUK. Instead,
Hansard HC 17 Jun 2002 vol. 387 Part No. 159
/ref> the Council has been reconstituted and renamed as the Architects Registration Board
The Architects Registration Board (ARB) is the statutory body for the registration of architects in the United Kingdom. It operates under the Architects Act 1997 as amended, a consolidating Act. It began under the Architects (Registration) Act, ...
and now operates under the Architects Act 1997.
Notes
References
See also
EU "Sectoral Directives"
External links
The EU Single Maket Archives (Architects)
EUR-Lex, Law and Publications, Directive 85/384/EEC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Architects (Registration) Acts, 1931 To 1938
Registration of architects in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1931
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1934
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1938