These Regulations amend section 4(2A) of the Architects Act 1997 (c.22) (“the Act”). Section 4(2A) was inserted into the Act by the Architect (Recognition of European Qualifications etc and Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1331) which implemented, in part, Directive 2005/36/EC (OJ No L 255, 30.0.05, p.22) amended by Council Directive 2006/100/EC (OJ No L 363, 20.12.06, p.141) (“the Directive”) on the recognition of professional qualifications.
The Directive is designed to remove obstacles to free movement of persons and services within the European Union, so that nationals of the Member states have the right to pursue a profession in a Member state other than the one in which they have obtained their qualifications. This is achieved by the Directive providing for a procedure of the automatic recognition of certain specified qualifications, and for a procedure for assessing other qualifications for the purpose of giving access to a profession. These Regulations amend the Architects Act 1997 to ensure the automatic recognition of the updated qualifications listed in point 5.7.1 of Annex V to the Directive.
The requirements to produce evidence of lawful establishment or eligibility to practise were inserted into the Act in order to clarify that the UK would accept registration (or lawful establishment) in the home Member State where qualifications had been issued but would also accept evidence demonstrating that were the applicant to apply for registration in their home Member State they would be eligible to do so. The UK considered that such clarification would help in avoiding Member State nationals who intended to practice only in the UK being required to pay registration fees in both their home Member State and in the UK. At the same time, these requirements ensured that where entries in Annex V were not current in describing what was required to access a given home Member State market individuals would not gain access to the profession in the UK unless they were eligible to do so in their home Member State . Since Annex V now lists for each Member State all the qualifications (including practical experience) required to gain access to the profession, these additional requirements of lawful establishment and eligibility to practise are not necessary in order to ensure automatic recognition.
The Regulations remove the statement that in order to benefit from recognition of the professional qualifications gained in his or her home Member State a Directive-rights national needs to be lawfully established or eligible to practise. Instead individuals shall be treated as having achieved an equivalent standard of competence by producing evidence of a kind described in section 4A(1) where this provides access to the profession in the home Member State. The evidence described in section 4A(1) includes evidence of formal qualifications listed in point 5.7.1 of Annex V to the Directive.
An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen.