This is a concept website · Enquire about this domain

cpdonline.com.auCPD rules, one profession at a time

Guide 4 · Architects in NSW

CPD for architects in NSW: what the Code requires and what the Board expects

The NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct requires a practising architect to “take all reasonable steps to maintain and improve the skills and knowledge” needed for the architectural services they normally provide, and to report on those steps when the Board asks (Architects Regulation 2017, Schedule 2, cl 16). The Regulation sets no number of hours. The hours come from the NSW Architects Registration Board, which says it expects at least 20 hours of CPD a year, at least 10 of them formal.

General information about NSW rules, not legal advice. The official places to check are the NSW Architects Registration Board and the Act and Regulation on the NSW Legislation website, linked at the foot of this page.

Act
Architects Act 2003 (NSW)
Code
Regulation 2017, Sch 2, cl 16
Hours from
The Board, not the law
Checked
9 October 2026
Three layers

The Act, the Code and the Board

An architect’s CPD in NSW is built in three layers, and only the last one carries a number.

  1. Layer 1 · The Act

    The Architects Act 2003 lets the regulations establish “a code of professional conduct setting out guidelines that should be observed by architects in their professional practice” (s 7(1)). It also gives the Board a power, not a duty, to remove an architect’s name from the Register if “the architect has failed to comply with any continuing professional development requirements” (s 24(2)(g)).

  2. Layer 2 · The Code

    Clause 11 of the Architects Regulation 2017 establishes the NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct, set out in Schedule 2. Its clause 16 is the CPD rule, set out below. A failure to comply with the Code may constitute unsatisfactory professional conduct under the Act.

  3. Layer 3 · The Board

    The Board’s CPD page states its expectation of hours: at least 20 a year, of which at least 10 are Formal CPD. That figure is the Board’s, published on its own page; it is not written into the Act or the Regulation.

Subclause (1) requires an architect to take all reasonable steps to maintain and improve the skills and knowledge needed for the architectural services the architect normally provides. It names two ways of doing so, quoted here with subclauses (2) and (3):

“(a) undertaking such activities that the Board is satisfied demonstrate the maintenance and improvement of the architect’s skill and knowledge, or

(b) such other means as may be approved by the Board from time to time.”

“(2) An architect must, when requested by the Board to do so, report to the Board on all the steps taken by the architect under subclause (1).”

“(3) Subclauses (1) and (2) do not apply to a non-practising architect.”

Architects Regulation 2017 (NSW), Schedule 2, clause 16, in the version current from 1 July 2020

Before the Board removes a name under section 24(2), it must give the architect notice of the proposed action and at least 28 days to make written submissions (s 24(3)).

The hours

The Board’s expectation of hours

The Board describes clause 16 as requiring architects to report to it that they have taken all reasonable steps to keep their skills and knowledge up. Against that, it sets out its expectation: a minimum of 20 hours of CPD each year, and of those, at least 10 hours of Formal CPD.

The Board itself offers one route that is online: a series of free webinars on regulatory requirements and obligations, each of which it says gives 1 hour of Formal CPD once the participant completes a structured assessment task.

Reporting

When CPD is reported

An architect nominates a registration term when applying for full registration or renewal: 1 year, 3 years or 5 years (s 17A(1)). The Board ties CPD reporting to renewal, and so to the term chosen:

  • At renewalThe CPD report is due at registration renewal and is submitted as part of renewing.
  • June, for mostMost architects renew on 30 June, so their CPD report is due in June.
  • The month before an anniversaryAn architect first registered or reinstated in NSW after 1 July 2019 may renew on the anniversary of that date instead, and then reports in the month before it.
  • Every year, or at the end of the termOn a 1-year term, CPD is reported each year; on a 3-year or 5-year term, it is reported at the end of the term, though the Board says the yearly minimum still applies and CPD should be done regularly.

Separately from CPD, the Act requires the approved registration fee to be paid on or before 31 March in the year the registration is due for renewal (s 28(1)).

Who it covers

Practising and non-practising architects

Clause 16 does not apply to a non-practising architect (cl 16(3)). The Registrar may record an architect as non-practising only if satisfied that the architect has retired from the practice of architecture, or is not likely to practise as an architect for the foreseeable future.

The Code reaches beyond CPD: it also requires an architect to offer clients only architectural services within the architect’s skill and competency (Schedule 2, cl 4), and an architect in charge of a client’s project to maintain a thorough knowledge of the services to be provided on it (cl 13).

Solicitors’ CPD, by contrast, is written into law with its hours: see CPD for solicitors. For another figure that is a regulator’s expectation rather than law, see ASIC’s RG 206. The home page sets the five rules side by side.