The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has today published a report on the first statutory continuing professional development (CPD) cycle, introduced in 2025 following post-Grenfell recommendations. The report shows strong evidence of compliance from architects and identifies key practical and cultural areas for improvement, setting out the direction for how the scheme should develop as it matures.
2025 was the first mandatory year of ARB’s CPD scheme and this year saw high rates of engagement from the profession. More than 85% of architects initially complied with the new mandatory scheme.
The report shows a successful start but acknowledges areas for improvement, both for ARB and the profession. It identifies that although the profession is undertaking CPD, the quality of learning reflection is inconsistent across architects, with some records describing activities undertaken rather than what was learned and how that was applied to practice.
Looking ahead, the scheme must move from compliance to delivering value to architects and the wider profession. By 2030, ARB aims to have matured its CPD scheme, ensuring architects are effectively supported to identify relevant learning needs, reflect meaningfully and apply this learning in practice, while providing credible public assurance about ongoing competence.
Alan Kershaw, ARB Chair, said:
“ARB’s 2025 CPD report provides encouraging evidence of the profession’s commitment to high standards. The high level of compliance matters, but compliance is not the ultimate purpose of CPD.
The greatest value of CPD comes when learning changes what an architect notices, asks, checks or does in their professional practice. The evidence from this first year will help us strengthen the scheme and better support architects to identify learning needs, reflect meaningfully and apply that learning in their professional practice.”
Read the full 2025 CPD report here:
Continuing Professional Development in 2025
Key statistics for 2025 CPD records
38,000+ architects made CPD declarations 21,003 records reviewed on MyARB 20,661 records on MyARB achieved final compliance 802 RIBA records reviewed as a 5% sample The largest shares of recorded activity were for the topics covering environmental sustainability (24%) and fire and life safety (18%) 270 architects were removed from the register for non-complianceENDS
Contact:
Finn Tobin, Communications Manager, finnt@arb.org.uk Katie Crabb, Head of Communications, katiec@arb.org.ukNotes for editors
Download the 2025 CPD report: Continuing Professional Development in 2025 Read more about ARB’s CPD Scheme: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – ARB scheme for architectsCPD
The Building Safety Act 2022 gives ARB the statutory power to monitor the training, and development architects carry out throughout their careers. ARB’s CPD scheme is a mandatory condition of registration and ensures that architects maintain professional competence, adapt to new challenges to continue to maintain the public’s trust in the profession.
Notes to editors
The Architects Registration Board (ARB) is an independent professional regulator, established by Parliament as a statutory body, through the Architects Act, in 1997. We are accountable to government. The law gives ARB a number of core functions:
To ensure only those who are suitably competent are allowed to practise as architects. We do this by approving the architecture qualifications required to join the Register of Architects. To maintain a publicly available Register of architects so anyone using the services of an architect can be confident that they are suitably qualified and are fit to practise. To set the standards of conduct and practice the profession must meet and take action when any architect falls below the required standards of conduct or competence. To set requirements for and monitor the continuous professional development that architects must undertake, to provide assurance to the public about the continuing competence of the profession. To protect the legally restricted title of ‘architect’.For more information, please contact media@arb.org.uk
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https://arb.org.uk/2025-cpd-report-news-release/
seen at 09:39, 29 September in Architects Registration Board.