A former secretary of a leading structural safety body has resigned his Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) membership over its “lack of adequate response to the Grenfell tragedy”.
Civil engineer John Carpenter left ICE on 4 February after being a member since the 1970s and a fellow for over 40 years.
In a social media post on Monday (9 February), Carpenter claimed that ICE had not provided “advice or direction or any detailed aspect on the Building Safety Act” or on how the act’s key principles can be applied to structures that are not higher-risk buildings (HRBs) but still fall under the legislation.
He criticised a lack of any “serious attempt” to raise awareness of standards of competency on non-HRB structures and the institute not having appointed a “proactive, overall ‘Grenfell’ leader”.
Carpenter claimed that recent correspondence with senior ICE figures “indicated” to him that the institute “does not intend to change its spots sufficiently or quickly enough”.
He said that in 2024 he handed back his ICE gold medal because of his “profound professional embarrassment” at ICE’s “lack of action with regards to Grenfell”.
The accolade is awarded to members who have consistently contributed with their insights and ethics to the civil engineering profession.
“That position remains,” Carpenter said. “ICE is doing something of the ‘talk’ (but only in a limited manner) but still, after eight years, not doing the ‘walk’.”
Cultural change
Carpenter claimed that for over eight years, there has not been a “real attempt to ‘change the culture’” within ICE.
“The Code of Conduct has been tightened up but it would be naive to suggest this alone will change [the] culture,” he said.
He also flagged ICE’s “flawed” case study examples and Continuing Professional Development modules, with “significant errors” on its website. He told Construction News that some of these errors were corrected after he pointed them out.
Carpenter was also critical of ICE not employing chartered engineers, “nor anyone of national standing”, across its “core team”.
ICE’s current board of trustees is made up of fellow and associated ICE members.
Carpenter is a specialist in risk management and has worked as an independent consultant for over 25 years.
Between 2000 and 2010, he was secretary of the Standing Committee on Structure Safety, now known as Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures, a confidential reporting system for fire and structural safety issues.
He is the author of several industry guides and articles and the author of PAS 8811, a standard on major infrastructure client procedures for temporary works.
In a written statement to CN in response to Carpenter’s LinkedIn post, an ICE spokesperson said: “The Institution of Civil Engineers is disappointed that John Carpenter felt that he had to resign his membership. The ICE acknowledges his expertise and his commitment to addressing safety issues across the built environment, a cause the ICE is equally dedicated to.
“Over the past few years, senior professional members of the ICE, including the ICE Trustee Board, have engaged extensively with Mr Carpenter about his concerns regarding the institution’s content, leadership and governance. We have had wide-ranging conversations around the issues raised. We are assured that the content ICE publishes has been appropriately quality assured by expert engineers.
“We have also recently appointed a trustee [Dr Ohis Ilalokhoin] to lead on safety risk management to ensure that we are continually reviewing and improving our approach to safety across the built environment.”
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Cristina Lago