UK ends EU licensure reciprocity with new Architects Act 1997 amendments

2023-01-23T15:03:00-05:00

A pair of unprecedented changes to the UK’s Architects Act 1997 has been announced jointly by the British Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Architects Registration Board (ARB), ending the reciprocal acceptance of qualifications for EU-trained architects that has been observed since it was first established by Parliament.

Under the new guidelines, the UK will “end, in law, the automatic recognition of architectural qualifications listed in the EU’s Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications.” It will also enable the ARB to enter into “regular-led” recognition agreements with international counterparts, in effect leaving the door open for reciprocity agreements to be negotiated with professional bodies from other individual countries on a case-by-case basis.

This comes after the ARB finally hammered out a deal last year with the American National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) to ratify a Mutual Recognition Agreement that...

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UK ends EU licensure reciprocity with new Architects Act 1997 amendments