Professional Standards

Maintaining Standards – Facts and figures

Complaints

In 2016, 166 formal complaints were considered by the ARB. Not all of these complaints were referred to the Investigations Pool, a number of them were either resolved under Standard 10 of the Code of Conduct, or were considered to be outside of ARB’s remit.

Investigations Panel

In 2016, the Investigations Panel issued 73 decisions, this is comparable to last year’s figure of 72.

Professional Conduct Committee

In 2016, the Professional Conduct Committee held 31 hearings and issued 33 decisions (two of the hearings concerned two architects from the same practice). This was a slight increase on last year’s figure of 24.

Misuse of title

In 2016 there were 276 investigations into misuse of the title ‘architect’ under Section 20 of the Architects Act. This represents an increase of 15% compared to 2015 when 239 investigations were undertaken. Five of the investigations resulted in successful prosecutions. The average fine imposed by the Magistrates’ Courts was £1,800 with an average of a further £3,295 being awarded to ARB in costs. 91% of cases met the target of 16 weeks for closure or referral to ARB’s solicitor. This is comparable to last year’s figure.

Of the investigations concluded in 2016, 26% of complaints originated from members of the public. The remainder originated from architects, professional bodies, or ARB initiating its own investigations.

Complaints – 2016 – facts and figures

 

Investigations Panel

(2015 shown in the brackets)

No further action
17 (10)

Advice
28 (32)

Refer to the Professional Conduct Committee
28 (30)

Total number of decisions 73 (72)

Professional Conduct Committee

(2015 shown in the brackets)

Reprimand
7 (7)

staff circlePenalty Order
10 (8)

Suspension
8 (2)

pcc circleErasure
2 (4)

printing circleNot Guilty
3 (2)

office circleNo. Sanction
3 (0)

No. Case to Answer
0 (2)

Total number of decisions:
33 (25)