The Golden Thread

The Golden thread which is now part of the building Safety act 2022, is intended to capture all required information for progression of a project through each detailed gateway as introduced by the BSA (British Standard Authority). The Golden thread is predominantly a change management process that seeks to document any changes throughout the construction process for full traceability and transparency.

 The golden thread is both the information that allows you to understand a building and the steps needed to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future.’ The Act and its secondary legislation (The Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) Regulations 2023) requires duty holders and accountable persons to gather and provide the information to the regulator. However, the legislation does not prescribe the format, only that ‘the key building information to be provided to the regulator must be in electronic form’ and that this information must be submitted within 28 days of applying for registration.

The full principles of the golden thread as defined by gov.uk and the members of the BRAC golden thread working group are: 

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.

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

• The golden thread covers both the information and documents and the information management processes (or steps) used to support building safety.
• 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 (see below). The government will specify digital standards which will provide guidance on how the principles can be met.
• 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.
• 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).
• 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.
  
  A full explanation and its implications for specifier and manufacturers has been provided by TheNBS and can be found here. The full gov.uk publication can be found here