Dame Judith Hackitt coined the phrase “the golden thread” in her independent review of building regulations and fire safety, commissioned in the aftermath of the Grenfell tower fire, which took 72 lives in 2017.
What is the Golden Thread?
In her May 2018 report, Building a safer future, Dame Judith recommended the introduction of a ‘golden thread’ as a tool to manage buildings holistically. She stated that ‘a robust golden thread of key information’ should be ‘passed across to future building owners to underpin more effective safety management throughout the building life cycle’.
The mantle was taken up in the subsequent Building Safety Act 2022 published in April ’22, which gives duty holders clear accountability and statutory responsibilities as applicable throughout the life-cycle of the building (whether being designed, built, refurbished or occupied).
Duty holders such as the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor under the Act will be required to manage building safety risks, with clear lines of responsibility during the design, construction and completion.
If a building has more than one accountable person, the accountable person/ body responsible for the structure and exterior of the building will be the principal accountable person.
How were decisions reached?
Architects acting as the Principal Designer will be expected to be responsible for this ‘golden thread’ of information: maintaining not just an account of how the building has been designed but also how design decisions were taken relating to fire and structural safety. The Golden Thread is to be held digitally and should be established at the start of the construction cycle.
For example, it should therefore be easier to look back and understand the debate and reasoning behind key decisions relating to the suite of fire safety measures designed into a building, and for major contributing systems to remain in place and operational.
The information and documents required through the Gateways (key stages when approval must be sought from the new national Building Safety Regulator for higher risk buildings) will form part of the Golden Thread information. The Golden Thread will also provide information that enables the building to be kept safe, presented in an accurate, easily understandable, up-to-date and readily accessible format.
It will be the responsibility of the client working with the duty holders under the Building Safety Act to put in place the correct systems, processes and procedures to ensure that the Golden Thread is updated and maintained.
Confirmation that the Golden Thread information and key building information have been handed over to the accountable person for the occupation phase is also required.
Ecotect Engineering works with clients on maintaining up to date information on the specification of the fire sprinkler protection installed in buildings, and setting out the recommended maintenance protocols. At present the digitally held information takes a few differing forms.
Working hand-in-glove with The Building Safety Act 2022, is the new British Standard for digital management of fire safety information BS 8644-1 (Issued December 2022).
Intended to cover ALL stages of the lifecycle of a building, the new Code of Practice gives recommendations for the management and exchange of fire safety information, using digital information management processes.
One of its objectives is to provide a safer, appropriate built environment for the intended end-users, whilst also ensuring relevant and accurate fire safety information is accessible and available to the right parties when required. The challenge for 2023 is how quickly can contractors and built environment professionals rise to the digital challenge.
