One of the most important aspects of being a non-executive is the ethics and standards by which you conduct yourself. In 1994, the Government established a Committee on Standards in Public Life. The Committee was chaired by Lord Nolan, and was tasked with making recommendations to improve standards of behaviour in public life. The first report of the Committee established the seven principles of public life, also known as the “Nolan principles”.

The Nolan principles were revolutionary at the time because they focused on behaviour and culture, rather than processes. At the start of our September Board meeting, the Board heard from Dame Shirley Pearce, a member of that Committee, about the continued relevance of those standards (which are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership) today.

Standards like these are especially important in the context of the unprecedented political environment we find ourselves in – no organisation in the land, and certainly no professional, can be immune from the implications – if only we knew what those implications might be! Our role as a Board is to ensure that our organisation is sufficiently prepared and resilient to cope with whatever scenario it might encounter during the next few months as the outcome of this is played out in parliament and possibly the courts as well.

One of the most important decisions in any year is always about budgets and resources for the year ahead. I have spoken in the past about the scale of the challenges we are facing – and we recognised that restraining our spending within the context of our available income (the vast majority of which comes from annual retention fees) was going to be a huge challenge. I’m delighted to say that we managed to pull it off, and we will be able to hold fees at current levels for the year ahead.

That doesn’t mean any reduction in our ambitions though – the Board has also agreed to get on with the next steps in our response to the recommendations that have emerged from the Hackitt Review and the Competence Steering Group. We are just about to set up two focused working groups (with some common expert members and working with the RIBA and other professional bodies) to develop new guidance and/or standards regarding fire/life safety and climate change/sustainability. All this will form part of the wider work we are starting on a more fundamental review of how we assure professional competence not only at the point of registration, but also throughout an architect’s career.

Yours sincerely,

Alison J White

Chair
Architects Registration Board