"Reform of Architects Registration"[1] was the title of a UK government consultation paper dated 19 July 1994 which was issued by the Department of the Environment.
The main objective of the reforms was stated to be: The punctuation in the document, as reproduced above, seemed to indicate a close connection of some kind between setting fee levels and professional conduct.
But in the event the setting of fee levels was later abandoned, while, in respect of professional conduct, statutory powers to inflict fines expressly on a par with criminal penalties were given to a body which would have persons who are not themselves members of the profession in the decisive majority, and who would not be acting under the judicial oath of a judge or a magistrate in a court of criminal or civil jurisdiction, or pursuant to the consensual jurisdiction of an arbitrator, and would not necessarily have the appropriate skill and knowledge to be able to act competently and fairly in respect of hazarding an architect's professional reputation.
This could have been seen as an objectionable aberration, but that instead a preponderance of political opinion welcomed such an arrangement, regarding it as a pioneering development, may be explained at least in part by observing that the usage "stakeholders"[2] had gained some currency at the time.
Certain issues had been the background to the Warne Report as matters were in the 1990s and had always been, namely, issues concerning the flaws or merits of the case for or against such proposals in theory or in principle or in relation particularly, on the one hand, to the Register of Architects, to restrictions on the use of the word "architect", and to the practice of architecture considered as an art or as a business or as a means of earning a livelihood; and on the other hand, to official accountability, juridical norms and the rule of law: see further, article on Architects Registration in the United Kingdom - background to legislation.