The conduct and disciplinary process
The Institute's Code of Professional Conduct states that members of the Institute must always act with professionalism, competence, honesty, integrity and due care. Complaints against RTPI members are taken seriously. The issue you are concerned with should have taken place no more than 2 years prior and you should first consult the adopted Code of Professional Conduct in use at the time of the allegation. The Institute only considers complaints against its individual members.
Please note that neither the Institute nor its Conduct & Discipline Panel will:
- Review decisions of local planning authorities;
- Investigate allegations of maladministration by a local planning authority or other organisation;
- Consider an issue which would reasonably be dealt with by another disciplinary process, tribunal or court
- Consider an issue which relates to a current planning application or appeal
- Consider any matter that took place more than two years before the date of the complaint.
If you are concerned with local authority practice then you may first want to consider contacting the Local Government Ombudsman. Information on how they deal with planning matters can be found here.
Our process is outlined in a Complaints Procedure and this flowchart of the complaint investigation process.
Please note that the Institute will not investigate vexatious allegations, or issues where no obvious evidence has been provided.
What can the Institute do?
If a member has breached the Code of Professional Conduct the Institute can:
- Warn the member as to their future conduct
- Issue a reprimand
- Suspend their membership (normally up for up to 12 months)
- Terminate their membership
We cannot issue fines, make members pay compensation or require members to take any other actions. Guidance has been adopted which is used by the Conduct & Discipline Panel or Appeal Panel on awarding any sanction.
If I wish to complain, what do I do now?
The RTPI provides a complaints form on which you must provide specific details of your complaint in relation to the professional conduct a named RTPI Member. The complaint must relate to one or more clauses set out in the Code of Professional Conduct in use at the time of the allegation. Please download the RTPI Complaint form and use this to submit your complaint. You can use the Fill and Sign tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill the form in electronically.
You must submit this information to the RTPI 'complaints service' by one of two methods:
- Email: [email protected]
- Write to: 'RTPI Complaints Investigator' at the Institute address
You should include, wherever possible, electronic copies of the documents, published information or material related to the complaint and the clauses within the Code that you allege have been breached.
Please note our complaints service deals queries regarding standards of practice and ethics of RTPI members only.
Please note it only operates between 9am - 5pm two days a week, currently Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Any correspondence received out of this period will be actioned by return by the RTPI Complaints Investigator. RTPI Members seeking advice can contact the service by email or phone 020 7929 8194 during those days and times.