March/April 2020

On Ethics
United Kingdom Sets Engineering Ethics Vision

Engineering educators and organizations in the United Kingdom have set their sights on improving ethical thinking and conduct to strengthen the profession and protect the public.

Ethical competence within the profession and its relationship to registration have been growing concerns. Less than 15% of engineers in the UK are registered, and it’s difficult to monitor the continuing education of unregistered engineers, according to a 2016 report by John Uff, a former engineering law professor and arbitrator. The title “chartered engineer” is protected and represents only 5% of the profession.

The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire tragedy also revealed regulatory flaws. A major one, according to a 2018 report by Judith Hackitt, former chair of the government agency UK Health and Safety Executive, is a lack of any formal process for assuring the skills, knowledge, and experience of those engaged at every stage of the life cycle of higher-risk residential buildings.

Since 2003, several engineering organizations have focused on defining ethical values. The Royal Academy of Engineering published a statement of ethical principles with the Engineering Council. The academy also established a group aimed at identifying and sharing best practices in the teaching of engineering ethics in higher education.

On the regulatory side, ethics is infused in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence; “exercise responsibilities in an ethical manner” is listed among the standards. Professional engineering institutions also offer ethics for continuing professional development.

The vision for the new collaborative initiative, Engineering Ethics 2028, was developed by ethicists at the University of Leeds. The effort focuses on the following goals to create a profession that is better able to fufill its duty to serve the public interest.

Growing and strengthening the profession: This goal calls for a significant expansion of the number of engineers who are within the scope of efforts to embed ethics in the profession, whether through registration or membership of a professional engineering institution. Registration is viewed as the most effective way of ensuring the competence and conduct of individuals working in engineering roles.

Ethical competence: The initiative wants a much more widespread recognition by professional engineers that ethics is a fundamental part of their work, along with a significant improvement in their ability to recognize, analyze, and respond effectively to ethical issues.

The initiative also wants professional engineers to be willing to speak out on ethical issues within their organizations. This will require that organizations develop a culture that responds positively to being challenged and supports engineers who act on an ethics issues.

Responsible innovation: Engineers need to recognize the extent to which new technological innovations—whether artificial intelligence, automated vehicles, cybersecurity, or geoengineering—have an impact on society. As such, the profession must recognize its duty to communicate with the public and with policymakers, and to alert society about the risks and benefits that may come with these technologies.

Sustainability and climate change: It’s imperative that the profession’s members and its institutions see much more clearly the centrality of their responsibility to work sustainably. This includes recognizing engineering’s historical and ongoing contribution to both some of the problems related to climate change and potential solutions.