Professional practice, ethics and rules of conduct
What this domain tests
This section checks whether you can hold a professional position under pressure and can name the rule that supports it. Answers that stay at the level of "I would act ethically" earn little; answers that identify the duty, the document that creates it, and the action you would take, earn the marks.
The duties that recur
- Competence and honesty: undertake only work you are competent to do, and do not misrepresent your qualifications, your role, or the status of a design or report.
- Public safety, health and the environment first: where a client's interest conflicts with safety or an environmental limit, the public interest prevails.
- Integrity and conflicts of interest: declare any financial or personal interest early, in writing, and step back from decisions where you are conflicted.
- Confidentiality: client information is confidential, but it does not cover withholding information the law or a permit requires you to disclose.
- Anti-bribery: offering or accepting an advantage in connection with employment is an offence under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (Cap. 201); a gift is not made harmless by being small or seasonal.
- Statutory roles: environmental permit holders, discharge licence holders, and the Environmental Team Leader and Independent Environmental Checker under the EIA process each carry defined reporting duties.
Worked example
You are the Environmental Team Leader on a project operating under an environmental permit. Night-time noise monitoring records an exceedance. The contractor asks you to move the monitoring slot, and the project director hints that your firm's renewal depends on a quiet report. The professional answer: report the exceedance in the EM&A report as required by the permit and the EM&A manual, notify the IEC and EPD, propose mitigation and a follow-up measurement, and record the request you received. Re-timing valid data to avoid an exceedance is falsification; following a hint that a contract depends on suppressing it, if an advantage is offered, engages the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance as well as the rules of conduct.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating "the client instructed me" as a defence.
- Declaring a conflict after the decision rather than before it.
- Hiding behind confidentiality when safety or a permit condition requires disclosure.
- Signing off work you did not supervise or check.
- Failing to record the advice you gave - the strongest evidence of professional conduct is a dated note.