The Golden Thread Of
Information

Following the Grenfell Tower fire, the government appointed Dame Judith Hackitt to lead an independent review of building regulations and fire safety

Data Managed
Information

Following the Grenfell Tower fire, the government appointed Dame Judith Hackitt to lead an independent review of building regulations and fire safety. In her report, Building a safer future, Dame Judith recommended the introduction of a ‘golden thread’ as a tool to manage buildings as holistic systems and allow people to use information to safely and effectively design, construct and operate their buildings throughout the building life cycle’.

Based on Dame Judith Hackitt’s golden thread recommendations, the government set out that the golden thread will apply to all buildings within scope of the new more stringent building safety regime, introduced through the Building Safety Act.

It is the duty of the people responsible for a building to put in place and maintain a golden thread of information. Having a golden thread means that those people responsible, and others, will have easily accessible, reliable, up to date and accurate information.

Implementation of the golden thread will require individuals and organisations responsible for a building to have good information management systems and a clear understanding of how information management supports building safety. Going forward the information management for safety will need to be embedded across the sector.

Golden Thread
In Brief

The golden thread is both:

  • the information about a building that allows someone to understand a building and keep it safe.
  • the information management to ensure the information is accurate, easily understandable, can be accessed by those who need it and is up to date.

Golden Thread
In Detail

1. The golden thread will hold the information that those responsible for the building require to:

  • show that the building was compliant with applicable building regulations during its construction and provide evidence of meeting the requirements of the new building control route throughout the design and construction and refurbishment of a building.
  • identify, understand, manage and mitigate building safety risks in order to prevent or reduce the severity of the consequences of fire spread or structural collapse throughout the life cycle of a building.

2. The information stored in the golden thread will be reviewed and managed so that the information retained, at all times, achieves these purposes.

3. The golden thread covers both the information and documents and the information management processes (or steps) used to support building safety.

4. The golden thread information should be stored as structured digital information. It will be stored, managed, maintained and retained in line with the golden thread principles. The government will specify digital standards which will provide guidance on how the principles can be met.

5. The golden thread information management approach will apply through design, construction, occupation, refurbishment and ongoing management of buildings. It supports the wider changes in the regime to promote a culture of building safety.

6. Building safety should be taken to include the fire and structural safety of a building and the safety of all the people in or in the vicinity of a building (including emergency responders).

7. Many people will need to access the golden thread to update and share golden thread information throughout a building’s lifecycle, including but not limited to building managers, architects, contractors and many others. Information from the golden thread will also need to be shared by the Accountable Person with other relevant people including residents and emergency responders.