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Time for licenced Engineers?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
As a result of a discussion within a Linkedin group. I had originally raised the issue of the EC UK or IET legally licencing Engineers and had agreed to bring this discussion from Linkedin to the IET members in an appropriate community for a frank and open debate.

​The circumstances surrounding this discussion was the tragedy of Grenfell Towers and my personal observation that some of the alleged decision makers, had no technical qualifications to make decisions on public safety. I am wondering how far the inquiry will go to reveal that issue. 

​

As I currently work in Canada we do have an act of law governing the conduct of its licenced Engineers and this makes the Engineer have some higher degree of responsibility for public safety.


​Questions

1)    Given the impact of Grenfell, does EC(UK) have to now start considering licencing? What are the perceived hurdles to achieve this?

​2)    If not. What can we do within our profession to improve pubic safety with an objective to prevent another 'Grenfell' ?


I am ​Interested to get IET members responses.

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    One UK specific aspect which I don't think has been raised in this thread yet - I get the impression that those business leaders who successfully lobbied for Brexit generally seem to be in favour of the reduction of statutory regulation of their businesses (hence their stance). If this is the case, then I would imagine that after the UK leaves the EU we are likely to see substantial lobbying against any proposed introduction of licensing, and equally I wouldn't be surprised to see powerful lobbying against the level of licensing and regulation we already have.


    As someone who is "licensed" (although not using that term) to carry out engineering assessments against a specific EU regulation (which we expect to initially carry on as a UK regulation) I am watching such discussions with interest!


    So for those who believe extensive licencing of engineering should be introduced to the UK, there's another potential factor to consider. As a test case, how would you persuade (say) James Dyson that his engineers could only practice if they were licensed by a third party? if you can't do that, my feeling is that - rightly or wrongly - you probably won't succeed.


    Cheers,


    Andy
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  • 0
    One UK specific aspect which I don't think has been raised in this thread yet - I get the impression that those business leaders who successfully lobbied for Brexit generally seem to be in favour of the reduction of statutory regulation of their businesses (hence their stance). If this is the case, then I would imagine that after the UK leaves the EU we are likely to see substantial lobbying against any proposed introduction of licensing, and equally I wouldn't be surprised to see powerful lobbying against the level of licensing and regulation we already have.


    As someone who is "licensed" (although not using that term) to carry out engineering assessments against a specific EU regulation (which we expect to initially carry on as a UK regulation) I am watching such discussions with interest!


    So for those who believe extensive licencing of engineering should be introduced to the UK, there's another potential factor to consider. As a test case, how would you persuade (say) James Dyson that his engineers could only practice if they were licensed by a third party? if you can't do that, my feeling is that - rightly or wrongly - you probably won't succeed.


    Cheers,


    Andy
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