Engineering Council (Hansard, 30 July 1981)

§ Mr. Michael Marshall

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry has sent the Lord President of the Council a draft Royal Charter which would establish the Engineering Council, and has recommended that the Privy Council advise Her Majesty The Queen to grant that charter. I have placed a copy of the draft charter in the Library of the House.

I am very pleased to announce that Sir Kenneth Corfield has agreed to become chairman designate of the Engineering Council.

The draft charter provides that the objects of the council would be to advance education in, and to promote the science and practice of engineering—including relevant technology—for the public benefit and thereby to promote industry and commerce in the United Kingdom. The council's task would, therefore, be to advance what the Finniston report called the "engineering dimension"—to help to harness this country's engineering expertise into the production and marketing of internationally competitive products and into wealth creation.

For this purpose the Government see the need for the close involvement of employers and senior managers in industries in which engineers and technicians play an important part; of those in the various sectors of the education system concerned with the preparation of engineers and technicians; and of engineers and technicians themselves and their representative bodies.

The proposed Engineering Council is intended to be a focal point with which and through which all can co-operate in the national interest. The council would promote the development of academic courses and industrial training programmes for new entrants to engineering. Even more important in the short term, as the Finniston report recognised, would be the task of updating and developing the existing stock of engineers. The Government would look to the council to ensure that opportunities are available by part-time study and continuing education for engineers and technicians to 466W obtain and enhance their levels of qualification and to update their knowledge. By involving all those concerned the council would seek to ensure that engineers and technicians were better equipped to deal with rapidly changing technologies and that their skills were effectively used to improve the performance of industry.

The draft charter would require the council to establish a national register, open to anyone meeting the council's standards and criteria, with three sections: professional engineers; technician engineers; and engineering technicians. Within each of these sections, registration would be at three stages: stage 1 for those who had achieved appropriate standards of engineering education; stage 2 for those who had also achieved appropriate standards of engineering training; and stage 3 for those who had acquired appropriate experience as engineers or technicians.

I am confident that the council would attach high priority to determining, in collaboration with all those concerned, the standards and criteria for admission to its register. The draft charter provides that the council should endeavour to complete this task as soon as practicable and at most within two years.

Under the draft charter it would be the council that controlled the accreditation of academic courses, industrial training programmes and arrangements for experience satisfying its standards and criteria. But the council would use as its agents, to the maximum extent possible, engineering institutions and other bodies which it nominated for this purpose. The transition period mentioned above would enable those bodies wishing to seek nomination to make any necessary changes in their arrangements.

Many engineers are already registered by the Engineers Registration Board. The draft charter would safeguard their position by providing that they shall be admitted at stage 3 of the appropriate section of the council's register. The charter also provides for the council to admit to its register members of other bodies which the council is satisfied meet the appropriate standards.

In view of the widespread interest which has been expressed, I should explain what is envisaged would happen to the title of "Chartered Engineer". At present this is granted by the Council of Engineering Institutions under its Royal Charter. The discussions with the leaders of the profession have been on the basis that the title should be made available to the Engineering Council at the end of the transition period, although this change would require a petition to The Queen which would have to be approved by the membership of the CEI. Once the title was available to the Engineering Council anyone on its register as a professional engineer at stage 3 would then be able to call himself a "Chartered Engineer" provided that he was a member of a nominated chartered engineering institution or an affiliate; or, if there was no such body for the branch of engineering concerned, of a body affiliated to the council. This latter possibility would cater for new disciplines emerging as a result of new technologies. Any such person who did not wish to join such a body would still be able to indicate that he was a registered professional engineer at stage 3.

The draft charter requires that the membership of the council should provide a reasonable balance amongst those having experience and knowledge of the major areas of 467W industry, the significant engineering disciplines and their learned societies, and those concerned with the education and training of engineers and technicians.

To facilitate the council's establishment, under the draft charter my right hon. Friend would be responsible for making appointments to the council for the first three years: he would make such appointments as individuals and not as representatives of any particular interest group. It is envisaged that Sir Kenneth Corfield's appointment as chairman would run until the end of that period.

After the initial three years, the chairman and other members—between 15 and 24 in number—would be selected by the council in accordance with its byelaws. At least one half of the membership would have to have experience as employers or managers of practising engineers and engineering technicians; and the chairman and at least two-thirds of the other members would have to be chartered engineers, selected from a list of names put forward by employers' organisations, educational institutions or nominated chartered engineering institutions.

The Government would help finance the council's initial running costs, but the firm intention is that the council should become financially independent as soon as possible.

The draft charter is the result of consultation with employers' organisations, educational interests, the engineering institutions, trade unions and others. For the council to be a success, it needs the broad support of the interests concerned. I am confident that everyone would now wish the council well and that it would be able to depend on their support in order to achieve the improvements in our engineering practices which are so vital to the national interest.