The Royal Institute of British Architects paid £150,000 to reach a confidential settlement with former president Professor Alan Jones, resolving a long-running legal dispute over the mishandling of personal information that leaked to the press in March 2020. The RIBA Alan Jones settlement, which was concluded in 2025, is disclosed in the institute’s annual financial report as a payment for a ‘settlement agreement’ relating to an ‘ex-officio trustee’, a description the Architects’ Journal can confirm refers to Jones.
How the RIBA Alan Jones settlement reached £150,000
The dispute originated in early 2020 when allegations about Jones’s private life were leaked to the media. Jones alleged that the RIBA had failed to adequately protect or control confidential information relating to a personal matter, causing harm to him and his family. Jones temporarily stepped down as RIBA president between 31 March and 15 June 2020 after the institute reported a ‘serious incident’ regarding him to its regulator, the Charity Commission.
An independent investigation followed, after which Jones resumed the presidency. His reinstatement came alongside what he described as a ‘sincere and unqualified’ apology to members, an apology Jones would subsequently characterise as having been ‘scripted by RIBA advisers to match the gravity of the leaked exaggerated information’. A former council member told the AJ that, before the RIBA Alan Jones settlement was eventually reached, Jones had already incurred ‘eye-watering and prohibitively expensive’ legal costs.
In July 2021, Jones circulated a memo to RIBA council members in which he claimed that, before being reinstated as president, the board had required him to agree to a series of ‘undertakings’ he argued amounted to a ‘gagging order’. That same month, Jones resigned as a board member and trustee amid an ongoing dispute with the institute’s chief executive, Alan Vallance, stating that he could not support moves by the board to renew Vallance’s contract at the end of his five-year term.
In an interview with the AJ in September 2021, Jones said: ‘How I have been treated has caused me and others distress. [In] in terms of transparency and accountability, there is room for improvement.’
Annual meeting questions go unanswered
At the RIBA’s annual meeting on 24 September, member Mark Benzie cited the £150,000 figure from the financial report and asked the board why the organisation had not published an explanation of how the sensitive material had leaked, and why there had been no ‘follow-up investigation’. Jamie Hunt, director of governance and legal at RIBA, responded on behalf of the board that he could not ‘disclose any decisions made surrounding those disciplinary matters’.
Hunt declined to elaborate on the figures, stating that the institute was ‘bound by a defined settlement agreement’ and was ‘not in any position to provide figures at this stage in relation to what was spent’. He made no denial that the money had gone to Jones. Hunt added that the RIBA was ‘very cautious when obtaining independent legal advice’ and that ‘when we do so, we’re acting in best interests of the charity’.
A RIBA spokesperson told the AJ: ‘Parties to the matter have entered into a settlement agreement in relation to this matter and are bound by its confidentiality obligations, which prevents further comment.’
When the settlement was announced last year, Jack Pringle, chair of the RIBA Board, said: ‘RIBA has reached a confidential settlement with the past president of RIBA, Professor Alan Jones, in respect of his claim that information relating to him was not adequately protected and controlled by RIBA. RIBA regrets the fact that unauthorised leaks occurred and the harm that this caused Professor Jones and his family.’
In his own statement at the time, Jones, a Northern Ireland-based architect and academic, said: ‘I am glad to have reached a confidential settlement with RIBA regarding my complaint that information relating to me was not adequately protected and controlled by RIBA.’ Jones declined to comment further when approached this week.
The financial report disclosing the £150,000 payment is set to be published as part of the institute’s annual accounts, making the detail available to members and the wider profession for the first time.
