Company vs individual registration requirements vary between Australian jurisdictions, with some schemes applying to individuals, entities or both.
Some Australian engineer registration schemes apply only to individuals. For example, New South Wales and Victoria register individual professional engineers rather than engineering companies.
Other schemes can also regulate the business entity or contractor providing engineering services. Western Australia’s building engineering framework, for example, distinguishes between practitioner and contractor registration.
The practical questions are:
- must the individual engineer be registered?
- must the company, partnership or contractor also be registered?
- does the entity need to hold or evidence Professional Indemnity Insurance?
- is the engineer relying on an employer’s insurance or registration arrangement?
These requirements should not be assumed to be the same nationally.
An engineering firm operating in more than one state may therefore need different combinations of individual registration, entity registration and insurance evidence depending on where and how the services are provided.
