Every architect on the UK Register must now record CPD with ARB to stay registered, and the scheme has two mandatory topics: fire and life safety, and environmental sustainability. ARB sets no minimum hours, though it suggests at least eight activities a year, each recorded with a short reflection. RIBA Chartered Members have a second, heavier requirement on top: at least 35 hours a year, including 20 hours across the ten RIBA Core Curriculum topics, plus the RIBA Health and Safety test every five years for those carrying out designer’s duties.
ARB’s scheme is recent. It launched in January 2024 with a grace year, and since 2025 recording CPD has been a condition of staying on the Register. Many older guides still describe RIBA’s former points system, which RIBA no longer uses. This guide sets out both schemes as they stand now, how they fit together, and the legal competence duties under CDM 2015, the Building Regulations and asbestos law that sit alongside them.
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What are the ARB CPD requirements?
The Architects Registration Board gained its power to monitor competence through section 157 of the Building Safety Act 2022, which amended section 9 of the Architects Act 1997. The amended Act describes competence as having the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required to practise as an architect, and gives ARB the job of checking that registered architects maintain it.
The ARB CPD scheme works like this:
- Record your CPD on ARB’s platform or RIBA’s, throughout the year.
- Reflect after each activity on what you learned. Each record needs the date, topic, activity type and a learning reflection.
- Cover the two mandatory topics: fire and life safety, and environmental sustainability.
- Confirm your CPD at re-registration, when you pay your retention fee in November or December.
There is no minimum number of hours. ARB suggests, but does not mandate, at least eight activities a year. A personal development plan is optional.
The timeline
According to ARB’s 2025 annual report, the 2024 cycle was a grace year in which no architect was removed from the Register. From January 2025, it became mandatory for all architects to record CPD on an ARB-approved system in order to be retained on the Register in 2026. In other words, the scheme now has consequences, and 2025 was the first year that counted.
What happens if you do not comply
ARB’s published scheme is clear on two points. An architect told they are non-compliant who does not put things right will be removed from the Register. And a false declaration is treated as a matter of dishonesty, leading to a conduct investigation. ARB audits a random, risk-based sample of records each year, and deferral is available for parental leave or long-term sickness.
The second point is the one to take seriously. A thin CPD record is a compliance problem that can be fixed. Declaring CPD you did not do turns it into a conduct matter.
What are the ARB mandatory CPD topics?
ARB has two: fire and life safety, and environmental sustainability.
Neither choice is surprising. The Building Safety Act that gave ARB its CPD powers came out of the Grenfell Tower fire, and fire and life safety is the competence area where design decisions have the most direct consequences for building users. Sustainability reflects the regulatory direction of travel on energy, carbon and climate resilience.
The scheme specifies the topics rather than a fixed number of hours for each. In practice, a record showing a single short session on fire safety across a year of detailed design work on residential buildings would be hard to defend as adequate. The intent is that your learning in each area is proportionate to your practice.
Making the mandatory topics useful
The easiest way to satisfy the two topics is to attach them to live work. On fire and life safety, that might mean reviewing a recent project’s compartmentation and escape strategy against current guidance, attending a session on fire-stopping details, or working through a lessons-learned case with the fire engineer on a current scheme. On sustainability, it might mean learning a whole-life carbon method you have been asked to apply, or understanding the energy performance route for a building type you are designing for the first time.
Each of those produces a reflection that writes itself, because there is a project change to point to. It also produces learning that clients notice, which is more than can be said for a generic seminar chosen because it was free.
What are the RIBA CPD requirements for Chartered Members?
RIBA membership is voluntary, but RIBA’s CPD requirement is heavier than ARB’s. From RIBA’s CPD requirements and obligations:
- At least 35 hours of relevant learning each year
- At least 20 of those hours on the ten RIBA Core Curriculum topics, at 2 hours per topic each year
- Aim for half of your CPD to be structured where possible
- Record everything in the RIBA online CPD recording tool; RIBA does not accept alternative records
RIBA’s extended deadline to record CPD for 2025 is 30 June 2026. If you last looked at RIBA CPD some years ago and remember a points system, it is gone: current RIBA pages describe hours only.
The ten RIBA Core Curriculum topics
The Core Curriculum topics are:
- Architecture for social purpose
- Health, safety and wellbeing
- Business, clients and services
- Legal, regulatory and statutory compliance
- Procurement and contracts
- Sustainable architecture
- Inclusive environments
- Places, planning and communities
- Building conservation and heritage
- Design, construction and technology
The RIBA Health and Safety test
From 1 January 2025, practising Chartered Members must take and pass the RIBA Health and Safety test if their work requires them to carry out designer’s duties under CDM 2015. It must be passed every five years. RIBA calls this part of its mandatory competences: Health and Life Safety is in force, Climate Literacy has been piloted, and an Ethical Practice competence has been proposed with details expected later in 2026.
How do ARB and RIBA CPD fit together?
They overlap more than they conflict.
- Every registered architect must meet ARB’s scheme. RIBA membership does not exempt you from it.
- RIBA Chartered Members must also meet RIBA’s 35 hours and Core Curriculum, and the Health and Safety test where it applies.
- ARB accepts records on RIBA’s platform, so a Chartered Member can keep one record in RIBA’s tool that serves both.
- The topics map neatly. ARB’s fire and life safety sits within RIBA’s health, safety and wellbeing topic, and ARB’s environmental sustainability within sustainable architecture. Learning planned for RIBA will usually cover ARB’s mandatory topics along the way.
For a Chartered Member, the practical approach is to plan against RIBA’s Core Curriculum, since it is the more demanding requirement, record in RIBA’s tool, and check before re-registration that your fire and life safety and sustainability learning is visibly there for ARB’s purposes.
What legal competence duties apply to architects?
CPD schemes are professional requirements. Separately, the law places competence duties on anyone doing design work, whether or not they are an architect.
CDM 2015
Under regulation 8 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, a designer must have the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to fulfil the role. Regulation 9 requires designers to take into account the general principles of prevention and any pre-construction information to eliminate, so far as is reasonably practicable, foreseeable risks. HSE’s guidance for designers confirms that designers can be architects, consulting engineers, quantity surveyors and interior designers.
Building Regulations Part 2A
Since 1 October 2023, Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 in England has imposed dutyholder and competence requirements. Regulation 11F requires anyone carrying out design work to have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary. The wording mirrors the Architects Act definition: competence is not just knowledge, it includes behaviours.
Asbestos awareness
HSE’s asbestos training page lists architects and building surveyors among the occupations that need asbestos awareness training, under regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Architects working on refurbishment of pre-2000 buildings visit sites where asbestos-containing materials may be present, and their design decisions determine what gets disturbed.
Awareness is the baseline: recognising where asbestos is likely to be, understanding the survey types, and knowing that a refurbishment and demolition survey is needed before major works. It is not a qualification to survey or remove asbestos. For more, see asbestos training categories and the duty to manage asbestos.
What counts as good CPD for an architect?
Both ARB and RIBA care more about reflection than volume. A few principles make records stronger:
- Reflect on the practice change, not the content. “Learned about compartmentation” is weak. “Revised our standard detail for service penetrations through compartment walls” is strong.
- Tie learning to live projects. The most defensible CPD is learning prompted by a real design problem.
- Spread the mandatory topics through the year. Two hours on each Core Curriculum topic is easy in January and difficult in December.
- Record as you go. Reflections written the same week read as genuine; reflections reconstructed at re-registration usually do not.
- Be honest about duration. Given that a false declaration is a conduct matter for ARB, rounding up is a poor trade.
Architects who work alongside surveyors and on construction sites may also find our guides to CPD for surveyors and construction worker training requirements useful for understanding what their colleagues are working to.
Common CPD mistakes architects make
Assuming RIBA membership covers ARB
It does not. ARB’s scheme applies to every registered architect. The records can live in RIBA’s tool, but the ARB confirmation at re-registration is a separate declaration, and ARB’s two mandatory topics must be visibly covered.
Treating fire and life safety as a one-off
Fire and life safety is not a box ticked by one seminar. An architect working on residential schemes, particularly taller buildings, is making fire-relevant decisions every week. A record showing a single short activity in that area invites the question of whether learning is proportionate to practice, which is exactly what a competence-based scheme is designed to ask.
Recording activities without reflections
ARB requires a learning reflection for each activity. “Attended CPD on façades” is not a reflection. One or two sentences on what you will do differently, or what you checked on a live project afterwards, is.
Counting hours that did not happen
RIBA works in hours and ARB audits a sample of records. Rounding a 40-minute webinar up to two hours looks harmless until it is audited, and ARB treats a false declaration as dishonesty rather than an administrative slip.
Forgetting the legal duties outside CPD
CDM 2015 and Part 2A of the Building Regulations impose competence duties directly, whatever your CPD record says. Your CPD is evidence you are maintaining competence; it is not a defence if a design decision falls short of what those regulations require.
Leaving it to the retention deadline
ARB’s confirmation comes at re-registration in November or December. An architect who starts recording in October has, at best, a record that looks reconstructed. Record through the year, as ARB’s scheme intends.
A simple CPD year for a Chartered architect
- January: review last year’s record against the Core Curriculum and ARB’s two topics. Note the gaps.
- Check your Health and Safety test date if you carry out designer’s duties. It runs on a five-year cycle.
- Book fire and life safety and sustainability learning early, sized to your actual workload in those areas.
- Plan 2 hours per Core Curriculum topic, spread across the year, aiming for half structured.
- Add the legal baselines: asbestos awareness if you visit older buildings, and current CDM knowledge if you act as designer or principal designer.
- Log each activity in RIBA’s tool within a week, with a reflection.
- November: check everything is recorded before you confirm CPD at re-registration.
Which courses suit architects?
For architects wanting structured awareness learning in the areas both schemes and the law emphasise:
- Asbestos Awareness for Architects and Designers: asbestos awareness framed around design decisions and refurbishment projects
- Fire Safety Awareness: fire behaviour, means of escape and the Fire Safety Order (see fire safety training and UK law)
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Awareness: background for the inclusive environments topic
Those three together cost £18 rather than £27, because any three courses trigger the pay-for-2-get-3 offer. Add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. Architects who visit sites often add Working at Height Awareness, and practice managers can add Data Protection and GDPR Awareness.
Said plainly: these are CPD-accredited awareness courses. They are not RIBA CPD Providers Network products, are not the RIBA Health and Safety test, and are not regulated qualifications. Whether a given course is relevant, and how you reflect on it, is for you to record against ARB’s and RIBA’s requirements.
Frequently asked questions
Is CPD mandatory for architects in the UK?
Yes. Under powers from the Building Safety Act 2022, ARB requires every registered architect to record CPD. The scheme launched in January 2024 with a grace year, and from 2025 recording CPD on an ARB-approved system has been a condition of being retained on the Register.
How many CPD hours do architects need?
ARB sets no minimum hours; it suggests, but does not mandate, at least eight activities a year, each with a reflection. RIBA Chartered Members must complete at least 35 hours a year, of which at least 20 must be on the ten RIBA Core Curriculum topics at 2 hours per topic.
What are the ARB mandatory CPD topics?
ARB's scheme has two mandatory topics: fire and life safety, and environmental sustainability.
What happens if an architect does not complete ARB CPD?
Under ARB's published scheme, an architect who is told they are non-compliant and does not put it right will be removed from the Register. A false CPD declaration is treated as a matter of dishonesty and leads to a conduct investigation. ARB audits a sample of records each year.
Does RIBA still use a CPD points system?
No. RIBA's current requirements are expressed in hours: at least 35 hours a year, 20 of them on the Core Curriculum, recorded in the RIBA online CPD recording tool.
What is the RIBA Health and Safety test?
From 1 January 2025, practising RIBA Chartered Members whose work requires them to carry out designer's duties under CDM 2015 must take and pass the RIBA Health and Safety test, and pass it again every five years.
Do architects need asbestos awareness training?
HSE lists architects among the occupations needing asbestos awareness training under regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, particularly where they visit or design works to pre-2000 buildings. Awareness training is not a qualification to survey or work with asbestos.
CPD courses for architects
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.
This article is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. ARB and RIBA requirements change, and RIBA’s mandatory competences are still developing; always check the current requirements on arb.org.uk and riba.org. A CPD awareness course is not a regulated qualification, is not the RIBA Health and Safety test, and does not qualify anyone to survey or work with asbestos.