The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has struck 270 architects off the UK register for failing to meet its continuing professional development (CPD) requirements, in the first year that taking part was compulsory. The figure comes from the regulator’s 2025 CPD report, published on 29 September 2026 and first covered by The Architects’ Journal.
The scheme was introduced as one of the reforms that followed the Grenfell Tower fire. It launched in 2024, but that year served as a pilot or grace period in which nobody was removed for non-compliance. According to the report, more than 85 percent of architects met the requirement in the first mandatory year.
Two platforms, two compliance rates
Architects could record their learning either on MyARB or on the RIBA’s website. The 58 percent who used MyARB had their records checked in full, while the 42 percent who went through the RIBA were reviewed through a random 5 percent sample. Initial compliance among MyARB users stood at 90 percent and rose to 98 percent after follow-up case management. Among RIBA users it started at 71 percent and reached 95 percent after follow-up, based on the sample.
The ARB acknowledged that offering two platforms caused confusion and stopped it from applying the same oversight and feedback process to everyone.
What architects chose to learn
Environmental sustainability was the most common subject, making up 24 percent of recorded activities, followed by fire and life safety at 18 percent and design at 17 percent. Ethics accounted for only 3 percent, and conservation and heritage drew the least engagement of all. On average participants logged four activities, half the number the ARB recommends.
While describing the year as a successful start, the regulator reported wide variation in the quality of the reflections architects submitted and in how clearly they explained the way their learning applied to their work. Chair Alan Kershaw said the high compliance rate matters but is not the purpose of CPD, which in his view delivers most value when it changes what architects notice, ask, check or do in practice.
Next steps for the scheme
For the coming cycle the ARB says the programme has to shift from compliance towards delivering value for architects and the wider profession. Its aim is a mature scheme by 2030, with better identification of learning needs, stronger application of learning in practice and clearer public assurance of competence. For anyone on the UK register, the practical message is that CPD records are now checked, and that failing to keep them can cost an architect their registration.
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