Engineers and Professional Self-Regulation: From the Finniston Committee to the Engineering Council Unknown - 1992

From the rear cover

This book describes how the Thatcher Government sought to reform the engineering profession so that it more directly served the needs of industry. Making use of access to the papers of the Finniston committee and of various professional institutions Grant Jordan gives a detailed description of negotiations that eventually produced a chartered Engineering Council instead of the statutory Engineering Authority initially favoured by the government. Professor Jordan argues that this outcome can only be explained by a careful analysis of the dynamics of the Finniston Committee process. He describes how even at a time of so-called strong leadership under Mrs. Thatcher, with the party in power suspicious of professional closed shops, the government was reluctant to act without the co-operation of the various professional and learned societies. He explains how the engineering institutions, led by Viscount Caldecote, skillfully redefined the problems being discussed by Finniston and how Caldecote, who was both a prominent industrialist and a leading figure in the Fellowship of Engineering, persuaded the Government that the key issue was not to mould the engineering profession to suit the needs of industry, but to preserve the profession's traditional self-regulation. As well as offering an original and authoritative study of a major professional institution, this book provides a revealing study of the interaction between government, industry, and professions in Britain.