Find out what the ICE Council discussed at the final meeting of 2025.
At its first meeting of the 2025/26 session, the ICE Council took part in another busy and engaging session receiving updates on the Engineering Excellence Community Forum and the international portfolio and committee activities from the trustee for international.
The council also took some time to discuss the action plan for the Safety Risk Advisory Group (SRAG) and elect the ICE president for 2026/27.
Engineering Excellence Community Forum
Reflecting on how its work supports the intelligent and trusted themes of the new ICE Strategy, the Engineering Excellence Community Forum’s co-chair Andy Alder provided an update on its activities for 2026.
The forum plans to meet four times a year to cover a range of topics including skills, AI and modern methods of construction.
Alongside this, the forum will support the ICE’s work on the Department for Transport-sponsored PAS (Publicly Available Specification) for productivity.
The ICE will convene and lead the technical advisory board, which, in conjunction with the British Standards Institute (BSI) led steering group, will develop the full PAS 4010 specification for publication by the end of 2026.
The forum will also continue to provide input into the State of the Nation programme and the SRAG.
Trustee update
Trustees had agreed, to help enhance their relationship with the council, they would provide routine updates on their portfolios.
The first was from the trustee for international, Priti Parikh, who talked about the need to ensure the new ICE strategy is embedded in all ICE regional activity and asked the council to think creatively about how we continue to engage our members outside the UK.
She also welcomed the decision to increase the international representation on the council from five to seven people from November 2026.
We need to find more ways to share best practice from around the world and I would encourage people to share their expertise and case studies with the ICE.
Safety Risk Advisory Group (SRAG)
The Building Safeguards report, published earlier this year, set out an action plan for the ICE to raise the standards around safety risk management and create a supportive environment for anyone reporting failure or near misses.
As part of the action plan, the SRAG has been established and the trustee for the Learning Society was given the responsibility for safety risk and chairing SRAG.
The council was invited to discuss the other parts of the action plan, including the suitable provision of guidance documents, the use of CROSS-UK, which enables the confidential reporting of design, construction and fire issues, and the role of sector-specific registers.
The feedback from the workshop sessions will be discussed at the next SRAG meeting to ensure the ICE is actively evolving its thinking around safety risk.
The final very important item on the agenda was the vote to confirm the next ICE president, and I am delighted to say that the council unanimously voted in Julie Wood as ICE President 2026/2027.
I am sure all members will join me in congratulating Julie on her appointment.
Sustainable Development Goals:
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