Keeping information about a higher-risk building: the golden thread
The information clients, principal designers, principal contractors and accountable persons need to keep.
Applies to England
Why you must keep information about a building
You must keep a digital record of information about a building if you are:
- a client, principal designer or principal contractor working on a project that involves a higher-risk building
- an accountable person or principal accountable person responsible for a high-rise residential building
The information about a building is sometimes known as the golden thread. Keeping it helps you:
- comply with your legal duties
- manage building safety
Regulatory bodies such as Fire and Rescue Services, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and other building control bodies also use the information.
Higher-risk and high-rise residential buildings
A higher-risk building is a building that has at least:
- 7 storeys or is at least 18 metres high
- 2 residential units or is a hospital or a care home
A higher-risk building with at least 2 residential units must be registered with BSR before people live there.
You can read guidance about the criteria that makes a building a higher-risk building.
Managing and storing the information
You must manage and store information about a building, so that it is:
- kept digitally
- secure from unauthorised access
- available when someone needs the information
- presented in a way someone can use
- a building’s single source of truth
- accessible, by providing the information in a simple format that is easy to understand and written in plain English
- compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
During design and construction of a higher-risk building
Client’s responsibilities
As the client, you must keep information that describes the building and shows how it complies with building regulations. To do this, you must keep a record of:
- how those responsible for the building work comply with their duties
- how you will manage the work, so you build what you set out to build
You must share information about the building with every designer and contractor on the project.
To store information about the building digitally, you must provide a record-keeping system. Your system should have version control so users can see any changes. You must set out your policies and procedures, to make sure your system is:
- secure
- available for authorised access
Your record-keeping system will help you with the documents you’ll need to prepare when you apply for building control approval.
These include:
- drawings and plans
- competence declaration
- construction control plan
- change control plan and log
- building regulations compliance statement
- fire and emergency file
- client authorisation
- site location plan
- mandatory occurrence reporting plan
- planning statement
- a partial completion strategy
At the end of the construction phase
When the building work is finished, as the client, you must apply for a completion certificate.
To apply for a completion certificate you must demonstrate that you have given the information about the building to:
- the principal accountable person or the accountable person for a high-rise residential building
- the Responsible Person for a non-residential building or non-residential parts of the building
The building information you must hand over includes:
- all of the information you used to apply for your building control approval
- all of the information you provided for the completion certificate application
- the building completion certificate
- access and control of the building information
- the relevant fire safety information to the Responsible Person
The person you give the information to must confirm they have received it and that it is in a format they can use.
Principal designer’s responsibilities
As the principal designer, you must capture and keep all of the design information up to date.
You must work with the principal contractor to:
- make sure you record and evidence the design work during the construction phase
- help the client to provide information to anyone who needs it
- share information relevant to the building work
You must have processes in place to help:
- communication between designers
- capture and share information relevant to the building work
Principal contractor’s responsibilities
As the principal contractor, you must use the record-keeping system provided by the client to ensure that information about the building is up to date.
You must:
- help the client to provide information to anyone who needs it
- work with the principal designer to share information relevant to the building work
- have processes in place to help communication between all contractors
- keep evidence that the building work meets building regulations
- work with the design team to manage control changes
When a building is occupied or could be occupied by residents
Accountable persons’ and principal accountable persons’ responsibilities
As an accountable person or principal accountable person for a high-rise residential building you must:
- keep information about the building
- manage the record-keeping system to store the information
The information you must keep about a building are its:
- health and safety file
- safety case and safety case report
- residents’ engagement strategy
- mandatory occurrence reporting system
If you have them, you should keep other information or documents, such as:
- information about refurbishments to the building
- information about the building from previous owners (including any inspection reports and maintenance records)
- what standard the building was built to, for example, which building regulations were current at the time
Gathering and keeping this information will help you assess and manage building safety risks for the parts of the building you are responsible for. The information will help support your safety cases and safety case reports.
You must be able to:
- show how you assess and manage building safety risks in the building, which include the spread of fire and structural failure
- show that you know how to update and maintain the information for the building
- understand the fire strategy for the parts of the building you are responsible for
The principal accountable person must make sure the accountable persons understand the policies in place for keeping and storing building information.
Sharing information
You must provide on request the information about the building to:
- BSR
- other accountable persons for the building
- residents or owners of residential units in the building