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The Structural Engineer, Volume 61, Issue 2, 1983
CP 110 and/or CP 114, CP 115, and CP 116 As our readers will recall, the draft of the revision of CP 110 was issued for comment in February 1982. During the comment period, the Institution, in conjunction with the Institution of Civil Engineers, organised a number of symposia in different centres to discuss the proposals. In one of the papers introducing the discussion, Mr W. E. A. Skinner expressed his concern with the whole concept of limit state Codes. In the discussions that followed, various views were expressed, and there appeared to be some considerable support for the retention of the longer-standing Codes, CP 114, CP 115, and CP 116, referred to previously in this column. Since then, Mr Skinner, with two fellow members of the revision drafting committee (Mr J. E. C. Farebrother and Mr M. E. R. Little), has issued an invitation, through an insert in the October 1982 issue of the Journal, for support for a new approach to the drafting of Codes of Practice. They define the problem and state their aims as: Verulam
1. Conspectus The Standing Committee on Structural Safety was formed in the Spring of 1976. Four Reports have been issued and this is the fifth. The Committee always regarded its early years as experimental, since it was not possible, without operating experience, to predict the best way to use the time and effort available. Experience has now shown that there are at least two useful functions which such a committee could perform in the future. The first is to continue with the kind of work which has engaged the attention of the Committee since it began. The second is, when specifically called upon by the Institutions, to advise them on appropriate actions which they might take when a serious deficiency in the safety of a particular type of structure, or of a certain type of material used in structural construction, has appeared or is considered likely to appear. As far as the Committee is at present aware, there is only a small chance that such a fault will appear in the near future, but the probability can never be mathematically zero and the cost, if it should occur, could be very great, both in financial terms and in reputation.
All members, when applying for admission to the Institution, sign a declaration that they will be bound by the provision of the Charter and Bye-Laws and by the Rules of Conduct. For the majority, the latter simply strengthen the duty that they in any case owe to themselves as professional engineers. For some members in their day-to-day work, however, the Rules call for the observance of long-standing conventions, ignorance or disregard of which places the professional reputation of a member at risk as well as reflecting adversely on the Institution itself.