Everyone wants to see a strong regulatory framework for engineers – one that protects the public, works for all, and which is efficient, simple to understand and operate.
The Chartered Professional Engineers system was established in legislation in 2002 (Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Act 2002 and Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Rules (No 2) 2002). The Act named the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (Engineering New Zealand) as the Registration Authority.
Although much has changed within the industry since 2002, the CPEng Rules have remained largely unchanged. Governance and accountability for the Registration Authority was given to the Chartered Professional Engineers Board in 2021. That same year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment consulted on proposals as to how engineers might be regulated in the future.
In the meantime we can still make progress. You will see Engineering New Zealand commit to strengthening the CPEng system to achieve many of the reform objectives with minimal disruption. This means we will:
- look at introducing registration classes
- continue with improvements to registration and disciplinary functions and their supporting processes
- advocate for changes to the Chartered Professional Engineers’ Act (2002) to strengthen its purpose and levers
- consider how the CPEng system can support other regulatory regimes.
We will keep you updated and invite your thoughts on any changes proposed to the CPEng system.
