Professional Engineers Act 2002

The Act directly affects any individual who provides engineering services in Queensland that require the application of engineering principles, not merely the application of prescriptive standards. This includes civil engineers, structural engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, fire engineers, and engineers in all other covered areas.

Building contractors, construction companies, and infrastructure project developers are indirectly affected because they cannot engage unregistered individuals to provide professional engineering services. Clients relying on those services are the primary beneficiaries of the protective scheme.

The Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland, assessment entities approved under Part 6A, and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (as the review body) are all institutions engaged by the Act.

Overseas-qualified engineers and engineers registered in other Australian states and territories are affected by the Act's interaction with mutual recognition legislation.

No unauthorised professional engineering services (section 115(1)): A person who is not a practising professional engineer must not carry out professional engineering services. Maximum penalty: 1,000 penalty units. There is a direct supervision exception (section 115(2)): a person does not commit this offence if the services are carried out under the direct supervision of a practising professional engineer who is responsible for the services.

Engineering in registered area only (section 115(3)): A practising professional engineer must not carry out professional engineering services in an area of engineering other than an area for which the person is registered. Maximum penalty: 1,000 penalty units. Again, direct supervision by a registered engineer in the relevant area is a defence (section 115(4)).

No false claims (sections 113 and 114): A person who is not a registered professional engineer must not claim or hold out that they are one, or allow themselves to be held out as one. A person must not hold out another as a registered professional engineer knowing them not to be one. Maximum penalty: 1,000 penalty units in each case. The protected titles include "registered professional engineer", "registered professional engineer of Queensland" and "RPEQ" (section 114(a)).

Direct supervision requirements (section 115(5)): The direct supervision exception requires the supervising engineer to direct the person in carrying out the services and to oversee and evaluate the carrying out of those services. Nominal or nominal supervision does not qualify.

Continuing obligations during registration: Registered engineers must comply with the continuing professional development obligations (section 14F), training and competency requirements for scheme participants (section 14FA), and any prescribed code of conduct (section 14G). Contraventions of a code of conduct requirement are offences (section 14H). Registered engineers must also disclose matters adverse to their accreditation on an ongoing basis (section 14D).

The Board has broad powers to assess and decide registration applications under Part 2. The Board may require further information from applicants (section 10A) and may require an applicant to consent to health checks or other enquiries (section 10). In deciding whether an applicant is "fit to practise", the Board must consider matters including convictions and prior disciplinary findings (section 10B).

The Board may approve or refuse applications, grant accreditation subject to conditions (section 13C), and vary conditions at the request of the engineer (section 13D). Accreditation may be suspended or cancelled on a range of grounds, or the engineer may be disqualified from applying for accreditation, under the detailed procedures in sections 14 to 14AF.

The Board has powers to investigate complaints (Part 3) and to conduct compliance investigations without a complaint (section 42). Investigators may enter premises, require production of documents, and take samples. At the conclusion of an investigation, the Board may take a range of disciplinary actions including reprimands, suspension, cancellation, imposition of conditions, or orders requiring further training.

In serious cases the Board may refer a matter to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a disciplinary hearing. The Tribunal may impose penalties including cancellation of registration and disqualification.

The Act also empowers health assessments of engineers (Part 2A) where the Board has reasonable grounds to believe an engineer's health affects their ability to practise competently.

Assessment entities approved under Part 6A have a key role: they assess applicants' qualifications and competencies under approved assessment schemes, and their assessments must accompany registration applications where a scheme exists.

The primary penalties are:

• Carrying out professional engineering services without registration (section 115(1)): 1,000 penalty units.
• Carrying out professional engineering services outside registered area (section 115(3)): 1,000 penalty units.
• Falsely claiming or being held out as a registered professional engineer (sections 113(1) and 113(2)): 1,000 penalty units each.
• Using protected titles without registration (section 114): 1,000 penalty units.
• Contravening a code of conduct requirement (section 14H): penalty as prescribed.

Disciplinary penalties available to the Board include reprimands, conditions, suspension, cancellation of registration, and orders for repayment of fees. The Tribunal may also cancel registration or disqualify an engineer.

Contraventions found during investigations that indicate potential criminal offences may be referred to the police or the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Board itself may also apply to a court for an injunction under Part 9 to prevent ongoing breaches.

An applicant for registration must lodge an application in the approved form, nominating the type of registration and the area of engineering (section 8). The application must be accompanied by evidence of eligibility, an assessment entity's assessment where an assessment scheme exists for the area, any other required documents, and the application and registration fees.

The Board must decide the application within 30 business days of receiving all required information (section 12). If the Board proposes to refuse, it must give the applicant a notice and an opportunity to make submissions before making a final decision.

Registration is for a defined period (section 13B). Before the registration expires, the engineer may apply for renewal (section 9A). Renewal applications made after expiry may be treated as new applications or, if made within a grace period, may be dealt with as restoration applications (sections 23 and 9B).

Complaints must be lodged in the approved form (section 37(2)). The Board must investigate complaints and report on the outcome. Investigation timelines are not rigidly prescribed but the Board is subject to general administrative law obligations to act within reasonable time. Disciplinary proceedings before the Tribunal follow the standard QCAT processes.

Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth): Section 6 of the Act expressly states that the Act does not affect the operation of the Mutual Recognition (Queensland) Act 1992 or the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition (Queensland) Act 2003. An engineer registered in an equivalent occupation in another State may be entitled to registration in Queensland under the mutual recognition principle without the usual Queensland assessment process. However, as confirmed in Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland v Gardner [2021] FCA 564, the "equivalent occupation" test requires examining whether the law of the first State itself authorises the activities that constitute professional engineering services in Queensland, not merely whether there is practical overlap in the activities performed.

Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld): Engineers providing design services for structures, plant or substances subject to the WHS Act may carry obligations as designers, and registration under this Act does not substitute for WHS Act compliance duties.

Building Act 1975 (Qld) and related legislation: Certain engineering work on buildings may also require licensing or approval under building legislation. Registration as a professional engineer under this Act does not by itself satisfy those separate requirements.

The prescriptive standard exclusion: Providing services only in accordance with a prescriptive standard does not constitute professional engineering services under the Act's definition. This means that much routine technical work, such as designing to standardised tables without applying engineering judgement, may not be captured. However, the line between prescriptive and non-prescriptive work is not always obvious, and engineers who assume work is routine should document the basis for that view.

Area-specific registration: A mechanical engineer registered in that area alone cannot sign off on a structural design. Registered engineers must be careful not to step outside their registered area without the direct supervision exception being available. Supervision is not nominal: the supervising engineer must direct, oversee and evaluate the work.

Extraterritorial operation: Since 2014 the Act applies outside Queensland. A Queensland-registered engineer advising on a project in another State is subject to the Act's obligations; an engineer registered only in another State carrying out professional engineering services for a Queensland project may also be captured if the services relate to engineering.

Mutual recognition is not automatic: The Gardner case makes clear that mutual recognition does not operate simply because two States have registration schemes with similar labels. The test is whether the first State's registration law itself authorises the activities that constitute professional engineering services in Queensland. A building certifier registered in NSW is not necessarily entitled to Queensland registration as a professional engineer on that basis.

Non-practising registration does not permit practice: A person registered as a non-practising professional engineer must not provide professional engineering services during the registration period. They must apply to change to practising registration if their circumstances change.

An experienced civil engineer who relocated from New South Wales to Queensland should check whether they can rely on mutual recognition to obtain Queensland registration, or whether they need to apply through the Queensland scheme. If their NSW registration is in a category that itself authorises the application of engineering principles to design or construction (not just building certification), mutual recognition may apply. If their NSW registration is as a certifier or in another category that does not itself authorise those activities, they will need to apply through the Queensland scheme.

A structural engineering consultancy that engages a recent graduate to prepare preliminary design calculations must ensure a practising professional engineer registered in structural engineering directs the graduate's work, oversees it and evaluates it. Having the registered engineer review a final report without directing the process does not satisfy the direct supervision requirement.

A company tendering for infrastructure work in Queensland that includes the provision of electrical engineering design services must ensure that at least one individual on the project team is registered as a practising professional engineer in electrical engineering (or another relevant area). The company itself cannot be registered, only individuals.