Architecture Update: Titles intact

AFTER months of lobbying, Britain's 28,000 architects have persuaded the Government to drop the deregulation of the architectural profession from the forthcoming Deregulation Bill. Under the Government's proposal, the protection of the title 'architect' would go and the organisation that maintains the list of 'registered' architects would be abolished. The Government's U- turn is thought to be the result of last-minute intervention by the government whip Sydney Chapman, the only architect MP. Mr Chapman reminded the Department of the Environment that nine of the 12 European Union countries maintain legal control over the title 'architect', and suggested there were 'more important issues of the deregulation of architecture to go in the Bill'.