Information for professional engineers working on regulated buildings under the Design and Building Practitioners scheme in NSW.
Key information
- Professional engineers must be registered to do engineering work or provide engineering advice on class 2, 3 & 9c buildings.
- Professional engineers must also register as a design practitioner in the relevant class if they want to prepare regulated designs.
- There are mandatory annual requirements for maintaining your professional engineer registration.
- Mutual recognition arrangements exist for professional engineers from Queensland and Victoria.
Professional engineer registration
Professional engineers must be registered under the Design and Building Practitioner scheme to do professional engineering work or provide engineering advice on a regulated building class in NSW (currently 2, 3 & 9c buildings including mixed-use buildings).
Professional registration classes include:
- Civil
- Electrical
- Geotechnical
- Mechanical
- Structural
- Fire safety
Professional engineers can provide engineering advice on a regulated building in their field of registration. However they cannot prepare regulated designs, make design compliance declarations, or lodge documents related to regulated buildings unless they are also a design practitioner in the relevant class.
If eligible, you can also apply for other design practitioner registration classes in the same digital application:
- Design practitioner – register as a design practitioner to make design compliance declarations and/or lodge documents on the NSW Planning Portal
- principal design practitioner – register as a principal design practitioner to coordinate and lodge designs by other design practitioners for the building practitioner.
Find out how to register on the professional engineer registration page.
Maintaining your registration
Code of practice
Professional Engineers must comply with a Code of practice that sets out required professional and ethical standards.
- act in a professional manner and abide by standards expected by the community
- act within their level of competence and expertise
- maintain satisfactory level of competence
- act in the best interests of their client
- deal and communicate with clients in professional manner
- provide information to clients
- avoid conflicts of interest
- maintain confidentiality
- not misinform or mislead
- manage and resolve dispute.
- supervise appropriately, if relevant.
The Code of practice is in Schedule 4 of the Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021
Mandatory continuing professional development
Professional Engineers must complete 50 hours of relevant education and training per CPD year. Written records, such as certificates of completion or records of attendance, should be kept as evidence.
Download the CPD Guidelines for Professional Engineers for more information to help you meet your requirements.
Your existing CPD obligations as a member of professional bodies or through registration in other jurisdictions count towards your CPD obligations under this scheme, as long as the CPD activities you undertake also meet the requirements outlined in the CPD guidelines.
Record keeping
Practitioners need to keep records in a form that can be readily inspected for at least 10 years from the date the building work was completed, even if they cease to be a registered practitioner.
More information about record keeping is published in Part 7 of the Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021.
Insurance
Mandatory insurance became a requirement for all professional engineers undertaking professional engineering work on regulated buildings from 1 July 2022. Professional engineers must have professional indemnity insurance that provides them an adequate level of coverage to indemnify them for work they carry out as a registered professional engineer. This can be either an individual policy, a partnership policy or corporate policy.
You have an ongoing obligation to assess your insurance cover to ensure it is adequate. Different practitioners will have different business risks, which will affect what cover is right for you, so you must assess the adequacy of your cover based on your own circumstances.
When selecting an insurance policy, you must consider factors including:
- your financial resources
- any risks associated with your work
- any limits of the policy and other factors outlined in the Regulation
You may need to show us that you have assessed the adequacy of your cover. You should seek independent advice on the amount and type of cover you need.
Professional engineer classes
Civil engineer
'Professional Engineer - civil engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of civil engineering. Civil engineering involves the research, design, construction and maintenance of the built environment.
Electrical engineer
'Professional Engineer - electrical engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of electrical engineering. Electrical engineering involves equipment, devices, plant and systems that use electricity, electronics and electromagnetism.
Fire safety engineer
'Professional Engineer - fire safety engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of fire safety engineering. Fire safety engineering involves the application of engineering principles and rules to:
- the fire performance of a building material, structure or building,
- the selection of a fire system suitable for a particular building, including components of the systems,
- the safety and behaviour of a person in the event of a fire, or
- the prevention, detection and suppression of fire.
Geotechnical engineer
'Professional Engineer - geotechnical engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of geotechnical engineering. Geotechnical engineering involves the mechanics of soil and rock as applied to the design and construction of foundations, retaining structures, shoring excavations and ground bearing structures for buildings.
It does not include engineering that only involves geology or earth science, for example geological advice without any design and construction component. This type of work is not considered professional engineering work in NSW and does not require a person to be registered as a professional engineer .
Mechanical engineer
'Professional Engineer - mechanical engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering involves work related to devices, machines, structures, processes and systems involving mechanical elements.
Structural engineer
'Professional Engineer - structural engineer' class is authorised to carry out professional engineering work in an area of structural engineering. Structural engineering involves being able to predict and calculate:
a) the stability, strength and rigidity of built structures, and
b) how structures resist and transfer natural and other forces.
Professional engineers registration scheme
Guidance on activities considered professional engineering work
Download the Guidance on professional engineering work (PDF) for detailed information about the definition of professional engineering work.
Section 31 of the Act defines professional engineering work as work that requires, or is based on, the application of engineering principles and data to a design, or a construction, production, operation or maintenance activity, relating to engineering.
The Act excludes engineering work from the scheme if the work is only provided in accordance with a document that states the procedure or criteria for carrying out the work, and it does not require the application of advanced scientifically based calculations, or the engineering work is prescribed by the regulations as not being professional engineering work
Clause 14 of the Regulation further narrows the scope by limiting professional engineering work to such work directly in relation to designing or constructing a class 2, 3 or 9c building, or a mixed-use building that contains a class 2, 3 or 9c component.
This means that if your work is captured under the definition of professional engineering work (and is not excluded work), and you work on a class 2, 3 or 9c building or a mixed-use building with a class 2, 3 or 9c component in one of the 6 identified areas of engineering, you will need to be registered under this scheme.
Mutual recognition arrangements
Mutual recognition applies to the Professional Engineers Registration Scheme. This means Professional Engineers registered in Queensland and Victoria, will be entitled to register in New South Wales without needing to demonstrate qualifications and experience again.
However, under mutual recognition arrangements, professional engineers will still need to register under the scheme to continue working on regulated buildings in NSW.
Find out more about mutual recognition.
Engineers Practice Standard
The Practice Standard for Professional Engineers will set out the expected conduct of registered professional engineers carrying out professional engineering work. Professional engineers will be expected to adhere to this Practice Standard as a condition of their registration.
Resources
Training for professional engineers
TAFE NSW offers training for professional engineers:
Frequently asked questions
Can engineers who don't have the required qualifications or experience continue to work in the industry?
The Professional Engineers scheme requires all engineers who are doing professional engineering work to register in the relevant class of engineering, unless your work is directly supervised by a registered Professional Engineer.
However, we are aware that in some instances the qualification requirements could prevent highly experienced and skilled practitioners from continuing to undertake the work they have done for many years. We have introduced transitional arrangements for certain practitioners to demonstrate their competency through their skills, knowledge and experience until 31 December 2023.
Engineers who lack the experience to become registered as a Professional Engineer can gain experience if they are working under the direct supervision of a registered Professional Engineer.
Schedule 4, clause 19 of the Regulation, under Code of Practice for Professional Engineers sets out the duties of a practitioner who is directly supervising a person to do professional engineering work. The supervising engineer must ensure:
- the work is within the professional engineer’s competence and expertise, and
- the work is carried out competently, and
- the work is carried out in accordance with the requirements in the Act, Regulation, including the code of practice, and any other Act or law.
Need further support?
If you need help or have a question, please call Fair Trading on 13 32 20.
You can also contact Service NSW to ask a question, report an issue or give feedback.
For questions related to the NSW Planning Portal call 1300 305 695 or email [email protected]