Civil Engineering Consultancy Services
A report on the supply of civil engineering consultancy services in relation to restrictions on advertising

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Summary

We were asked to investigate and report on the advertising rules observed by consulting civil engineers and the effects of their restrictions on the public interest.

We were primarily concerned with two sets of rules. Those of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) impose certain restrictions on the content, form and distribution of members' advertisements. Those of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE) at present prohibit advertising by members except for directory entries in an accepted form and announcements of practice changes. Many consulting civil engineers observe the rules of both ICE and ACE. Some
consulting civil engineers belong to professional associations other than ICE and ACE, but we found that the effects of observance by them of the rules of the other bodies did not require further examination.

We found that observance of the ICE rules by consulting civil engineers was not against the public interest. We were concerned, however, that some members of ICE appear to believe that the ICE rules are more restrictive than the interpretation we were given, and we have suggested that ICE should take steps to clarify the position.

We found that the observance of the present ACE rules by its consulting civil engineer members is against the public interest. These rules restrict competition within the civil engineering consultancy profession and hamper the potential client in making an informed choice. These effects are not outweighed by benefits from the rules in protecting the client or maintaining professional
standards.

We consider that ACE should amend its rules to avoid the detrimental effects we identified. The broad principles underlying any new rules should be that consulting civil engineers are free to advertise in accordance with the principles of the British Code of Advertising Practice but that such advertising should contain nothing which would reasonably be regarded as likely to bring the profession into disrepute.

ACE told us that its Council would shortly be putting revised rules to the membership for approval and ACE described the proposals currently under consideration. The proposed rules as described to us would appear to be broadly consistent with the principles outlined above.

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