Safety underpins everything civil and infrastructure engineers and technicians do, whether that’s building new or maintaining existing structures and systems.
Why safety matters
Engineers and technicians have a duty to build and maintain infrastructure that is safe for society to use, and the ICE's role is to support the profession in doing so.
This page enables you to:
- Understand the ICE’s long-term commitment to raising safety standards.
- Learn how the lessons from the Grenfell tragedy have shaped this commitment.
- Stay up to date with the latest safety initiatives and developments.
- Learn how you can actively contribute to safer infrastructure.
What the ICE is doing on safety risk
Safety risk is a crucial element of civil and infrastructure engineering.
Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, the ICE has increased its focus on competence, accountability, and safety culture across the infrastructure sector.
It’s produced two reports, In Plain Sight: assuring the whole-life safety of infrastructure, October 2018, and Building Safeguards, July 2025, which set a clear direction for the profession.
The institution continually invests in improving engineers’ professional competence and industry-wide safety outcomes. Its work includes:
Safety Risk Advisory Group
A recommendation from the Building Safeguards report was to nominate a member of the ICE Trustee Board to lead the institution’s safety risk management action plan.
The trustee with this responsibility is ICE Fellow Dr Ohis Ilalokhoin. He chairs the Safety Risk Advisory Group, which was created in 2025.
The Safety Risk Advisory Group comprises infrastructure leaders and subject matter experts who guide the delivery of the action plan and advise on the ICE’s safety risk programme.
Mandated CPD
The ICE has set out clear expectations for members to maintain their CPD, and for professionally qualified members to cover the mandatory CPD themes, which includes safety and risk management.
The CPD Framework sets out the requirements for members, and the ICE Knowledge Hub provides content designed to cover these themes. However, members are not limited to using ICE resources to meet these requirements.
Knowledge Hub and CPD content
To support members’ learning, the ICE Knowledge Hub includes content to enhance their understanding of safety-critical topics.
Deep-dive case studies on lessons from infrastructure incidents and common modes of failure are also published on the Knowledge Hub as part of the ICE’s ongoing lessons learnt programme.
Current examples include:
- Explainer: Florida International University footbridge collapse
- Explainer: Gerrards Cross railway tunnel collapse
Committees, panels and CROSS-UK
The Safety Risk Advisory Group is working with ICE committees and panels to deliver the actions from the Building Safeguards action plan, including:
The Safety Risk Advisory Group is working with the Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures programme in the UK (CROSS-UK), an anonymous platform that enables professionals to report structural and fire safety issues.
The ICE co-founded CROSS-UK in 1976 with the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE). Since 2020, CROSS-UK has also been supported by the Institution of Fire Engineers.
Specialist registers
The ICE maintains a list of specialist registers, including:
- Health and Safety: a register of engineering health and safety professionals that meet the requirements of CDM 2015 (Construction [Design and Management] Regulations) and CDM (NI) 2016.
- Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs): a register the ICE jointly administers with IStructE, which lists engineers assessed to be competent to work on HRBs.
- All Reservoirs Panel: a register of engineers qualified to make technical decisions relating to the safety of reservoirs.
Sharing expert insight
The ICE takes part in safety consultations when it has expert insight to share.
For instance, the ICE participated in the the UK government's consultation on developing a single construction regulator, the headline recommendation of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 2 report published in September 2024..
The ICE has also provided evidence for the government’s emerging built environment professions strategy, which will inform future policy on competence, culture, and accountability across the entire construction sector.
How you can get involved
Help improve safety standards across the industry by attending ICE events and taking part in:
Sharing your views
The ICE encourages members to also participate in relevant safety consultations.
Members can find upcoming consultations via the Health and Safety Executive website.
CROSS-UK
Share confidential safety concerns and learn from others through CROSS-UK.
Get in touch
Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about the ICE’s activities in this space.
Get in touch with us at [email protected]
Latest news and insights
Stay up to date with developments in safety across the industry.
A timeline of safety progress
Explore the key moments that have shaped our safety work since Grenfell:
ICE on the Engineering Matters podcast
- Listen to our trustee responsible for safety, Ohis Ilalokhoin, and ICE Past President and lead author of Building Safeguards, Paul Sheffield, discuss the recommendations in the report, and explain how the sector will take them forward.
- Listen to Chris O’Regan, chair, ICE/IStructE Higher Risk Buildings Register Committee and associate director, Mason Navarro Pledge, explain the skills and expertise needed from engineers working on high-risk structures.
Events
View past Inspiring Engineering Excellence events and attend our upcoming safety-focused workshops and forums later this year.
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- Webinar
Global Perspectives On: safe and inclusive infrastructure
How can inclusive design remove barriers and improve lives? Hear global perspectives from industry experts on creating safer, more accessible infrastructure for diverse communities.
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- Webinar
From calculations to decisions: engineering judgement, confidence and influence
Discover how engineers move beyond technical calculations to make sound decisions, challenge assumptions and influence safer outcomes, through practical lessons from civil design assurance in the UK energy sector.
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- Lecture
Built for purpose: designing inclusive infrastructure for everyone
This breakfast workshop will build on the recent ICE “Built for Purpose” publication, bringing together report authors, transport providers and practitioners to discuss and agree necessary actions to implement the changes needed to deliver on inclusive design outcomes.