The Engineering Council welcomes the passage into law of the Building Safety Act, which is a significant and positive step on the journey towards safer buildings.

The Engineering Council has developed a standard for the competence of engineering professionals working on high-risk buildings, based upon the existing, internationally-recognised UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC) and mapped against the BSI Flex 8670 Standard. This will enable engineering professionals to demonstrate their competence against an external standard set out by the profession and by BSI.

The standard for the competence of engineering professionals working on high-risk buildings is not yet published, but is expected in early 2023. Further announcements will be made closer to the launch date, and the standard will be available to download from the Engineering Council website, along with all the Standards and Guidance documents we produce. 

The Engineering Council is a member of the Competence Steering Group (CSG) established by the Industry Response Group (IRG) to address the need to raise and set the bar on competence of those working in higher-risk buildings, as identified in the Hackitt Review, Building a Safer Future, responding to the Grenfell Tower fire. The CSG brought together for the first time more than 150 institutions and associations across the full spectrum of construction, built environment, fire safety and building owner/manager sectors; all working towards the common purpose of raising competence to improve life safety.

With the professional engineering institutions (PEIs) it licenses and the cross-industry CSG, the Engineering Council has committed to setting up a Register for competent engineering professionals, to support public trust and safety.

For press enquiries:
Kate Webster, Engineering Council – kwebster@eng.org.uk, 020 3206 0567

The Engineering Council was incorporated by Royal Charter in November 1981 to regulate the engineering profession in the UK. This is our 40th year of setting and maintaining standards, to ensure that society continues to have confidence and trust in the engineering profession.

The Engineering Council holds the national Register of Engineering Technicians (EngTech), Incorporated Engineers (IEng), Chartered Engineers (CEng) and Information and Communication Technology Technicians (ICTTech). It also sets and maintains the internationally recognised standards of competence and ethics that govern the award and retention of these titles. By this means it is able to ensure that employers, government and wider society, both at home and overseas, can have confidence in the skills and commitment of registrants. For more information visit: www.engc.org.uk