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 was the product of more than four years worth of research and can now officially be approved thanks to the new legislation’s second clause.

For now, the ARB says they are in the process of developing similar mutual agreements with New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and other countries in Europe. The amendments will, however, not affect EU architects already registered in the UK. 

Along with this latest guidance, the announcement said: “Operationally, the ARB will continue to recognise architectural qualifications listed in the EU’s Directive, and architects holding relevant EU qualifications will continue to be able to apply for registration, until a new recognition agreement under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement is finalised, or the ARB chooses to change its approach.”