An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

102A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILhad “teeth”. It was linked to the Engineering Council’s Bye-laws, Codes and Rules ofConduct and a Registrant could be de-registered if flagrantly disregarding the Code.“The Code allowed for the engineering Institutions to have additional requirements to suittheir particular disciplines. However, the Engineering Council did not pursue animplementation policy and few engineers were properly aware of the Code or theobligations.”And this on the same topic from Council member Ken Burrage is a fairly typical letter inresponse to the question inviting contributions to this Chronicle “How were you recruited toserve on the Council?”“I volunteered! I became aware of the work the Engineering Council proposed to do inproducing the Code of Practice on managing risk. In 1988 I was serving as deputy Director ofSignal Engineering for British Rail (BR). Following the tragic railway accident at Claphamon 12 December 1988 I became BR Director of Signalling and TelecommunicationsEngineering with responsibility for implementing the recommendations of Sir AnthonyHidden’s enquiry into that accident. In 1992 I wrote to Denis Filer and said that in view ofthe traumatic period that the railway had just been through post Clapham I felt that there wasa contribution I could make in helping to produce the Code on Risk. The rest is history. I wasinvited to become a member of Senate and served on a number of committees and workinggroups until finishing my contribution to the Engineering Council as one of the 16 transitionmembers between the old “Council” and the new arrangements brought in as part of theUnification arrangements. I worked closely with Bill Francis on the Risk Code andparticularly closely with John Fairclough on the Unification project.”The Engineering and the Environment Working Party chaired by Professor Roland Clift, thesecond Working Party that had been formed in 1990, also prepared an initial Code of Practicein 1991; this code was to encourage a greater awareness, understanding and effectivemanagement of environmental issues among Registrants. Then, under the chairmanship ofCouncil member Professor Michael Burdekin of UMIST, the code was presented to theEngineering Assembly in July 1992 and published in October 1993 (to become effective on 1March 1994) as a ‘Code of Professional Practice on Engineers and the Environment’. It wasjointly sponsored by Lloyd’s Register and the Department of the Environment. Much of thework on this was undertaken by Simon Morgan, the EngC’s recently appointed SeniorExecutive, Industry. A companion ‘Guidelines on Environmental Issues’ was published bythe EngC in September and distributed to all Industry Affiliates. Similarly to the Risk IssuesGuidelines, this was made available free to Registrants, £5 to Industry Affiliates and £10 toothers. In the following four months there were 10,000 requests for copies.Engineering Occupational StandardsA contract was drawn up in 1991 with the Department of Employment for the EngC to hostthe emerging Engineering Occupational Standards Group (EOSG). The aim was to coordinatethe development of occupational standards, in a range of fields and levels of engineering, toprovide a sound basis for the development of NVQs recognised by the EngineeringInstitutions and compatible with the needs of industry. Under the EOSG in 1992, andsupported by the professional Institutions, three Industry Standing Conferences [in addition tothe Construction Industry Standing Conference already in place] were established coveringExtraction and Process, Engineering Manufacturing and Engineering Services (Operations).© Engineering Council UK 2004