Architects will finally see a long-awaited piece of legislation brought online that is designed to protect their profession as well as members of the public.

Former president and current member of the Institute of Bermuda Architects Fraser Butterworth was "delighted" that Governor Sir John Vereker's announced in Friday's Throne Speech an intent by Government to close a loophole in the Architects Registration Act.

While that Act essentially describes who could and could not be called an "architect" it did not set out specifically what an architect was or what activities an only an architect could do. Mr. Butterfield said the purpose of this new bill is to close that loophole.

"We're trying to protect the public from people who are claiming to be an architect and are not. Generally speaking although it is called the Architect Registration Act it really is an act to protect public interest more than anything else.

"There are too many people on this Island who purport to be architects, many of them are very close to being architects but aren't, and there is no stress on them to have to provide things like public liability insurance. If things go wrong there is a very unhappy person at the other end of bill."

To qualify as an architect, persons must have the appropriate educational backgrounds and qualifications. Certified architects normally complete a five year degree which culminates in Masters in Architecture followed by two years of professional practice working in the field before the Architects Registration Council considers applying the designation of registered architect.

All architects are covered by collective liability insurance which protects the clients they serve, however, Mr. Butterworth said that many of those who are not qualified architects do not carry such insurance.

"The previous registration act was introduced to simply register the name and title of an architect so people who weren't architects couldn't call themselves architects, but that is really all it does and unfortunately what it didn't do was to protect what architects do.

"For instance when a doctor is registered, the practice of medicine gets registered with him so other people who aren't doctors can't practise medicine and that is really what this Act does.

"It means that basically at certain levels of architecture, you have to be an architect to do it."