Retention Fee
After careful consideration the Board has decided to increase the retention fee for the first time since 2015, from £107 to £111. You can find out more about the reasons for the change and what the fee enables us to do in our dedicated article.

Recruitment for Board Members and Chair
ARB’s Board structure is changing and from 7 January 2019 our Board will consist of one independent, non-executive Chair and ten non-executive Board Members (five architects and five lay members of the public). The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) are leading on recruitment and all positions will be appointed by the Privy Council. Read our article dedicated to the topic for more information.

Building a Safer Future
We began exploring how best to respond to the Hackitt Review recommendations immediately after the publication of the Report in May 2018. With regard to the ARB specific recommendation in Appendix E of the Report, we were mindful of the potentially significant implications to the profession and the importance of carefully considered action. Our explorations in this area include identifying which areas of regulation, function and procedures are likely to be impacted as well as the scope of current legislation in this area. At this month’s meeting the Board agreed ARB’s Strategic Objectives for 2019-2021 and Business Plan for 2019 which includes the next phase of work in this area.

In relation to the recommendations in Chapter 5 of the Report, we continue to work with the Industry Response Group to respond to the recommendations of the Hackitt Review. The first meeting of ‘Working Group 7’, co-chaired by Richard Parnaby and I, took place on 7 September. Further information about the work of the Steering Group on Competences can be found in this Construction Industry Council news release, published this month on behalf of the Industry Response Group.

I hope you find September’s Ebulletin informative. If you have any feedback or comments you can contact us via our Talk To Us page or by phone on +44 (0)20 7580 5861.

Nabila Zulfiqar

Chair
Architects Registration Board