Areas of Engineering

18 Jun Areas of Engineering

Practice note ID: 4.2 (2A)

Status: Approved

Issued: 1 December 2014

Note: This practice note only applies to RPEQs registered to 1 July 2008 who are carrying out the same type of professional engineering services they were at that date. It does not apply to RPEQs who have since changed the type of professional engineer services they provide.

Rationale

The purpose of the practice note is to clarify the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland’s (Board) position in relation to Registered Professional Engineers of Queensland (RPEQ) who were registered prior to the 1 July 2008 amendments to the Professional Engineers Act 2002 (Act).

2. Overview

The amendments to the Act on 1 July 2008 included, amongst other things, the provision for Approved Assessment Entities to submit new areas of engineering to the Minister for approval. The implementation of the new assessment scheme has therefore included a number of new areas of engineering.

The implementation of new areas of engineering has caused concern amongst RPEQs that they may be working in contravention of s.115(3) of the Act which states that:

A person who is a RPEQ must not carry out professional engineering services in an area of engineering other than an area of engineering for which the person is registered under this Act.

This has caused particular concern to RPEQs who carry out Structural engineering services and were registered prior to 1 July 2008 in the area of Civil engineering (as at that time there was no area of Structural engineering).

Policy

RPEQs will not be required to apply for registration in a new area of engineering under the new scheme as long as they continue to comply with the Board’s continuing registration requirements by keeping their knowledge up to date in the area of engineering in which they claim competence based on their registration as at 1 July 2008.

Practice

This practice note only applies to RPEQs who are carrying out the same type of professional engineering services from when they were registered prior to 1 July 2008. It does not apply to RPEQs who have since changed the type of professional engineering services they provide.

References

Related legislation:

The Professional Engineers Act 2002