The golden thread of building information explained

The golden thread is the term the Building Safety Act 2022 uses for accurate, up-to-date information about a higher-risk building, kept so that the right people can find it when they need it. It came out of Dame Judith Hackitt's review after the Grenfell Tower fire, which found that information about buildings was often missing, wrong or impossible to find.

What it is

The golden thread is both the information and the way it is managed. The information must be:

• accurate and up to date
• stored digitally, in a way that keeps it secure and allows it to be shared
• accessible to those who need it, such as Accountable Persons, the Building Safety Regulator, and residents for relevant parts
• understandable, with consistent terms and structure
• kept for the life of the building, with a record of changes.

What goes in it

For an occupied higher-risk building, the golden thread typically includes:

• key building information submitted to the Regulator
• the safety case report and the evidence behind it
• fire risk assessments and action plan records
• external wall appraisals and remediation records
• compartmentation surveys and fire stopping records with photographs
• fire door inspection records
• fire alarm, emergency lighting, smoke ventilation, lift and sprinkler certificates and maintenance logs
• as-built drawings and specifications
• mandatory occurrence reports
• resident engagement strategy and records.

Practical set-up for an existing building

1. Agree a structure: one folder or system per building, with consistent sections.
2. Name things consistently: use the same reference for a door, detector or riser in every document.
3. Assign owners: decide who updates each part when something changes.
4. Record versions: never overwrite a document without keeping the old one.
5. Fill the gaps: commission surveys where information is missing or estimated.

Why the format of reports matters

A golden thread is only as useful as the reports that feed it. Reports that record each door, detector or seal against a unique reference, with photographs and dates, drop straight into the thread. Narrative reports that say "doors generally satisfactory" do not. That is why every record we produce is itemised and filed by building.