Everyone wants to see a strong regulatory framework for engineers – one that protects the public, works for the whole of the profession, and is operationally 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. Although the Government still has proposals to change the way the profession is regulated, as of 2023 we understand these may not be realised in the near future.

But 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 to introduce registration classes
  • continue with improvements to both the registration and disciplinary processes
  • advocate for changes to the Chartered Professional Engineers’ Act (2002) to strengthen its purpose and levers, as well as the inclusion of requirements for engineers to be registered as Chartered Professional Engineers in the other legislation.

We will keep you updated and invite your thoughts on any changes proposed to the CPEng system.