The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has published a report on the first statutory continuing professional development (CPD) cycle, introduced in 2025 following post-Grenfell recommendations.
The report shows strong evidence of compliance from architects and identifies key practical and cultural areas for improvement, setting out the direction for how the scheme should develop as it matures.
Last year was the first mandatory year of ARB’s CPD scheme and this year saw high rates of engagement from the profession. More than 85% of architects initially complied with the new mandatory scheme.
The report shows a successful start but acknowledges areas for improvement, both for ARB and the profession. It identifies that although the profession is undertaking CPD, the quality of learning reflection is inconsistent across architects, with some records describing activities undertaken rather than what was learned and how that was applied to practice.
Looking ahead, the scheme must move from compliance to delivering value to architects and the wider profession. By 2030, ARB aims to have matured its CPD scheme, ensuring architects are effectively supported to identify relevant learning needs, reflect meaningfully and apply this learning in practice, while providing credible public assurance about ongoing competence.
Alan Kershaw, ARB Chair, said: “ARB’s 2025 CPD report provides encouraging evidence of the profession’s commitment to high standards. The high level of compliance matters, but compliance is not the ultimate purpose of CPD.
“The greatest value of CPD comes when learning changes what an architect notices, asks, checks or does in their professional practice. The evidence from this first year will help us strengthen the scheme and better support architects to identify learning needs, reflect meaningfully and apply that learning in their professional practice.”
Key statistics for 2025 CPD records:
- 38,000+ architects made CPD declarations
- 21,003 records reviewed on MyARB
- 20,661 records on MyARB achieved final compliance
- 802 RIBA records reviewed as a 5% sample
- The largest shares of recorded activity were for the topics covering environmental sustainability (24%) and fire and life safety (18%)
- 270 architects were removed from the register for non-compliance
