Code of Professional Conduct

Last updated: May 2026

1 INTRODUCTION AND PRINCIPLES

This Code of Professional Conduct applies to all Members of the Institution and reflects the Institution’s values of Integrity, Inclusivity, and Empowerment. It is based on and includes the five elements of the Statement of ethical principles for the engineering profession[1], endorsed by all UK Professional Engineering Institutions and set out below. All persons engaged in engineering at any level, from the youngest apprentice and student, should think and work in accordance with these ethical principles.

1.1 Honesty and integrity

Engineering professionals have a duty to uphold the highest standards of professional conduct at all times, including openness, fairness, honesty and integrity. They:

• act reliably and in trustworthy ways and are accountable for their actions
• respect confidentiality, intellectual property and personal or sensitive information, and respect the privacy of individuals and communities
• identify, declare and address conflicts of interest
• avoid knowingly misleading others and take steps to prevent corrupt practices, including plagiarism, misinformation, and false representation
• reject bribery and improper influence.

1.2 Responsibility to society

Engineering professionals have a duty to protect people, respect rights, uphold the trust placed in them by society nationally and globally, and obey all applicable laws and regulations. They give due weight to facts, published standards and guidance, and act to assess and manage risks. They:

• make the health and safety of others a leading priority and draw attention to hazards
• report malpractice and irresponsible or unsafe practice, whether within the workplace or outside
• are aware of how their work and behaviour might affect others, and respect rights of individuals and communities
• ensure their work is lawful, justified, evidence-based, and in the public interest
• recognise the importance of physical and cyber security and data protection
• work to deliver inclusive outcomes, meeting diverse needs across society.

1.3 Accuracy and rigour

Engineering professionals have a duty to acquire, maintain and use wisely the understanding, knowledge and skills needed in their role, and apply these to their work so that it meets the highest standards. They:

• act with care and diligence in all professional work, recognising that public trust depends on its accuracy, integrity and quality
• undertake work only within their current competence or under competent supervision, applying sound judgement and critical thinking
• ensure that they have the right knowledge and expertise to tackle a task, applying sound judgement and critical thinking especially in novel or emerging areas
• actively maintain knowledge, skills and competence, and support others to do the same
• test evidence objectively and without bias, respecting the views of others and with awareness of assumptions, uncertainty and limits of understanding.

1.4 Leadership and communication

Engineering professionals have a duty to uphold and promote high standards of leadership and communication. They:

• engage with communities and wider society, and communicate responsibly about how engineering should meet people’s needs
• foster a culture where concerns can be raised without fear of reprisal, and act on well-founded concerns
• communicate clearly, accessibly and proportionately about benefits, risks, uncertainties and trade-offs in engineering works
• promote equity, equality, diversity, fairness and inclusion, creating inclusive cultures to support everyone in the profession
• acknowledge and communicate uncertainty, limits of evidence, and unknowns
• maintain public trust and uphold the reputation and standing of the profession.

1.5 Responsibility for the future of technology, society and the environment

Engineering professionals have a duty to act as stewards of technology, developing technology responsibly, with an awareness of the lasting consequences of their work for society and the environment and taking account of the long-term, systemic, intergenerational and environmental impacts. As far as is reasonably practicable, they:

• consider fully the risks and ethical implications of emerging and fast-moving technologies, such as artificial intelligence and technologies with autonomous or semi-autonomous capabilities
• anticipate wider and emergent consequences and potential for misuse of technologies, and apply precaution appropriately where potential harms are serious or irreversible
• account for immediate, cumulative and systemic risks – including climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and resource depletion
• manage technology responsibly across its lifecycle, including decommissioning
• protect and, where possible, restore natural and built environments
• consider future impacts of engineering and avoid shifting risks or burdens to future generations, distant geographical locations, or supply chains, whether local or global.

2 PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

This section 2. of the Code sets out detailed rules relating to conduct which have been developed from the ethical principles in section 1., but which give very clear and definitive requirements relating to Member conduct in particularly critical situations.

2.1 Institution rules – Members shall comply with requirements of the Institution’s governing documents and supporting rules and regulations.

2.2 Promotion of engineering and ethics – Members shall actively promote public awareness and understanding of the impact and benefits of engineering and technology, and shall support the development of ethical cultures in the workplace, in the broader world of engineering, and in public life.

2.3 Skill, care, diligence, and technology – Members have an overriding responsibility for the public good, including the health and wellbeing of present and future generations. Members shall act with due skill, care, and diligence to the best of their ability and with proper regard for professional standards. Members shall only undertake tasks and responsibilities that they are competent to discharge and will disclose relevant limitations of competence. When using artificial intelligence and technologies with autonomous or semi-autonomous capabilities, Members shall pay due regard to the limitations of such technologies and of the risks associated with their use. Members shall also take all reasonable steps to confirm that those working under their authority are both suitably equipped and competent to carry out tasks assigned to them.

2.4 Responsibility – Members shall discharge their responsibilities and duties with integrity and fairness. Members shall accept personal responsibility for all work done by themselves and under their supervision or direction.

2.5 Safety – In their work and the products of their work, and that of those working under their supervision or direction, Members shall take care to prevent avoidable danger and risk to the health, safety, and well-being of current and future generations.

2.6 Sustainability – Members shall act in accordance with the sustainability principle of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

2.7 Environment – Members shall act in accordance with environmental good practice to prevent avoidable adverse impact on the environment.

2.8 Security – Members shall adopt a security-minded approach in their professional and personal life, and particularly towards use of artificial intelligence and the management of data and communications, understanding, complying with, and seeking to improve systems for security and their governance.

2.9 Equity, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Fairness – Members shall treat all persons fairly, and with consideration and respect, seeking to influence others by the high standards that they set – acting as role models. Members shall uphold the dignity and reputation of our profession, including in their relationships with the Institution, its employees, and their fellow Members and shall abide by the Institution’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy.

2.10 Professional advice – Members who are called upon to give advice or an opinion in their professional capacity shall base such advice and opinion on the best available objective knowledge and information. Members whose professional advice is not accepted shall take all reasonable steps to make the person overruling or neglecting that advice aware of any danger or loss which may ensue and, if appropriate, inform that person’s employers of the potential risks involved.

2.11 Concerns – Members shall raise any concern about a danger, inadequately quantified or managed risk, or malpractice or wrongdoing, whether within or external to the workplace. The Institution supports the principle and the practice of such reporting and can provide Members with confidential support and advice on reporting (email membership@railei.org in the first instance and mark as CONFIDENTIAL). Whilst concerns should normally be reported to the relevant employer or manager, Members may also consider the use of other company and industry sector reporting systems, eg Worksafe / Work Safe procedures and CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis Service) further details of which are provided in the Appendix below. Similarly, Members shall support a colleague, or any other person to whom they owe a duty of care, who in good faith raises a concern about danger, risk, malpractice, or wrongdoing.

2.12 Conflict or potential conflict of interest – Members shall conduct themselves in accordance with the principle that in any conflict between a Member’s personal interest and fair and honest dealing with other members of the community, their duty to the community shall prevail. Members shall inform their employer in writing on any conflict or potential conflict that may exist or arise between their personal interests and the interests of their employer.

2.13 Confidentiality – Members shall observe the proper duties of confidentiality owed to appropriate parties and shall not disclose any confidential information without proper authority.

2.14 Insurance – Members shall assess relevant liability and, where appropriate, hold professional indemnity and other relevant insurances.

2.15 Bribery and corruption – Members shall reject bribery and all forms of corrupt behaviour and will make positive efforts to ensure that others do likewise.

2.16 Public Statements – Members shall not make any public statement in their professional capacity without ensuring that they are competent to make such a statement. Members shall not make public statements or write material for publication in any manner, including through social media, that is misleading or derogatory either to the Institution or to the dignity of the profession, nor shall they authorise any such statement or material to be made, written or published by others. Members shall abide by the Institution’s policy on the use of social media Social-Media-Policy-V_1_0.pdf.

2.17 Informing the Institution – Members shall advise the Institution:

• if they have received a criminal conviction or an adverse civil court judgment, whether in the UK or overseas, which is relevant to any aspect of this Code of Professional Conduct;
• upon becoming bankrupt or disqualified as a Company Director or Charity Trustee;
• if their membership of another professional body is terminated as a result of disciplinary action;
• of any significant breach of this Code by another Member.

3 DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

3.1 Members are required to maintain and develop their professional competence (knowledge, skills, and behaviours) and to promote and support the development of others through continuing professional development (CPD). This helps to demonstrate to the wider engineering community and to the public, Members’ continued competence and professionalism.

3.2 Professionally registered engineers must complete and record CPD on an annual basis to abide by the CPD Code for Registrants as detailed in UK-SPEC.

3.3 Each year, the Institution will randomly select a proportion of its Members and ask them to submit a record of their CPD for the past 12 months, including an element of reflection on each activity undertaken. There is no prescribed format in which returns should be made.

3.4 Following submission, Members will receive feedback intended to enhance their professional development. Where submissions do not show evidence of appropriate CPD or reflection, support will be offered. The Institution’s Registration Policies and Procedures allow for this process to take up to three months from the initial request.

3.5 Submission on request is mandatory for those Members who are professionally registered through the Institution. A registrant who persistently does not respond to or engage with requests to submit CPD records will be removed from the Engineering Council’s Register of Engineers for non-compliance. The Institution will advise the Engineering Council of Members removed from the Register for non-compliance and the Council will share this information with other Professional Engineering Institutions.

4 APPLICATION

4.1 In applying these requirements, it is recognised that Members may work in disciplines or contexts where ethical considerations are complex or contested, and where there may be differing views as to how ethical principles should be balanced or interpreted. In such circumstances Members are expected to exercise their own independent and informed professional judgement in navigating such ethical considerations, consistent with the principles set out in this Code of Professional Conduct.

4.2 In exceptional circumstances it may not be possible for a Member to comply fully with one or more provisions of this Code of Professional Conduct due to conflicting requirements (for example, conflicts with local laws or regulatory requirements, government policy, organisational constraints, or contractual obligations). Importantly, where local laws or other mandatory requirements impose a higher standard of ethical conduct, those requirements must take precedence.

4.3 In such exceptional circumstances, the Member must be able to demonstrate that they have:

• given proper consideration to the relevant issues;
• taken reasonable steps to understand and address the conflict, including seeking independent advice and/or consulting affected parties where appropriate; and
• made reasonable efforts to comply with the Code of Professional Conduct to the maximum extent possible.

4.4 Where these conditions are met, the Member will not be subject to sanction solely on the basis of non-compliance with the relevant provision of this Code of Professional Conduct.

5 DISCIPLINARY ACTION

5.1 Failure to observe this Code – If a Member fails to observe this Code of Professional Conduct, they may become subject to disciplinary action under the RailEI Disciplinary Procedures. The Procedures, including the investigation and appeals processes can be found at Disciplinary-Procedure.pdf.

5.2 Disciplinary action by another professional body – If a Member has their membership of another professional body terminated as a result of disciplinary action, they may become subject to disciplinary action under the RailEI Disciplinary Procedures.

APPENDIX

Confidential Safety Reporting, and CIRAS

Man-made disasters^[i], including the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London and the 2018 and 2019 crashes of two 737 Max aircraft, have again highlighted the dangers that arise when those working in the engineering sector don’t act in accordance with good practice and their professional duty. Railways, like many businesses, are subject to commercial and other business priorities which can occasionally lead to individuals feeling pressured to do what is convenient or cheap rather than what is right, or perhaps to “turning a blind eye” to shortcuts or potentially dangerous decisions taken by others.

It is self-evident that safety concerns and serious lapses in ethical conduct should be reported through appropriate channels so that potentially hazardous situations can be addressed. The Institution supports the principle and practice of such reporting and can provide Members with confidential support and advice on reporting (email membership@railei.org in the first instance and mark as CONFIDENTIAL).

Reputable companies actively encourage the use of robust Worksafe / Work Safe arrangements, allowing employees and others working with them to formally raise safety concerns and resolve them without negative repercussions.

But what to do when you honestly feel that speaking out may lead to aggression, damage your livelihood, or limit your career prospects – in short, where there are strong informal incentives not to use formal company reporting procedures? 

The railway industry has long recognised the danger inherent is such situations and in 1996 established the independent Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis Service (CIRAS). CIRAS raises safety concerns at the most senior levels within relevant companies, whilst maintaining reporters’ confidentiality. Maintenance of confidentiality is the service’s primary guiding principle.

So, if you have a health, safety, or wellbeing concern about your workplace or another site you have visited or have knowledge of, you can contact CIRAS confidentially at:

• www.ciras.org.uk/Raise-a-concern
• UK: 0800 4 101 101 or ROI: 1800 239 239
• Freepost CIRAS.

Speaking out through Worksafe / Work Safe or CIRAS is consistent with the RailEI’s code of conduct and with an individual’s responsibilities under the UK Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

For more details of the CIRAS service go to: www.ciras.org.uk/About-us

For more details of Worksafe arrangements, search for “Worksafe” or “Work Safe” on your company’s intranet.

[i] Man-made disasters are those which involve an element of human intent, negligence, or error involving a failure of a man-made system, as opposed to those natural disasters which result solely from natural hazards.

[1] Royal Academy of Engineering and UK Engineering Council – Statement of ethical principles for the engineering profession – February 2026