Guidance on the golden thread of information requirements for higher-risk buildings was recently published by the Construction Leadership Council. Here, Ron Alalouff focusses on the content which covers occupied buildings.
Accountable persons have a legal responsibility to manage building safety in higher risk buildings (HRB). The accountable person is defined in section 72 of the Building Safety Act 2022, and has the legal responsibility for building safety obligations, including managing measures against the spread of fire and structural safety risks of an HRB. The accountable person is usually a “person who holds a legal estate in possession in any part of the common parts” and is often an organisation rather than an individual.
Due to the ownership and legal arrangements of a building, there may be several accountable persons for a given HRB. If there is just one accountable person, they are the principal accountable person. Where there is more than one accountable person, the owner or person with a legal obligation to repair the structure and exterior of the building is the principal accountable person. In practice, “they” will be an organisation such as a social housing provider, commonhold association or the freeholder for a leasehold block.
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Although accountable persons cannot delegate their legal obligations to others, they can employ an individual or organisation such as a managing agent to carry out duties on their behalf. They can also commission specialists to carry out structural or fire safety investigations or fire risk assessments, but they are required to ensure that any such person is competent. In practice, this means appointing people or organisations with the right competencies and capabilities for the work, and ensuring those appointed have systems in place to comply with their duties under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act and capture evidence of that in the golden thread. Ultimate accountability for making sure those tasks are carried out appropriately and the liability for a building’s safety remains with the accountable person.
The golden thread is defined as “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 golden thread provides the information that will enable an accountable person to understand a building and what they need to do to keep it – and those who occupy it, visit it or are nearby – safe.
Accountable persons must be able to readily access golden thread information and documents to give the right people the right information at the right time. They also need to give appropriate people direct access to that information, to enable them to refer to it and update it where appropriate. The information and documents must be stored and shared in electronic format and be readily available to support the day-to-day management and operation of a building. Where there are several accountable persons, they must coordinate and cooperate to ensure golden thread information is shared.
Whenever regulated building work is carried out in an HRB, the duty holders and the accountable persons must also be aware of the new competence requirements in the building regulations and the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations. PAS 8673:2022 provides a benchmark for assessing competence in building safety management. While an accountable person is not expected to be an expert in all aspects of building safety, they need to know the limits of their competency.
The golden thread of information underpins the content of a safety case report, and will be used to demonstrate a good understanding of the building and that building safety risks are being identified, assessed, mitigated and managed. The golden thread of existing HRBs includes information about the building, details and outcomes of risk assessments, and details of the building’s safety features and management processes for them.
All of this information will be vital in preparing the safety case report and assuring the accountable person that the building is being managed safely. It will also demonstrate to residents and to the Building Safety Regulator (the regulator) that the building is being safely managed. An accurate, up-to-date golden thread will also enable accountable persons to comply with other requirements, such as those set out by the Regulator of Social Housing and various fire safety requirements.
The golden thread information and documents that accountable persons must keep are set out in Schedule 1 of the Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc.) (England) Regulations. It also identifies what information an accountable person must provide to the regulator, to other accountable persons, to residents and to the local fire and rescue authority. It is likely that accountable persons will already have some of the golden thread information available through registration of the building and the provision of key building information, and from requirements under existing legislation such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Accountable persons are required to take a ‘whole building’ approach, which recognises the building as a system rather than a series of independent systems, elements or processes. To consider how a building functions as a whole, it is necessary to know how the parts of the buildings and components within it work together, says the guidance. “A fire door, for example, is a part of the compartmentation of the building, as well as being one of many fire doors. As a part of the compartmentation it contributes both to containing a fire within the compartment of origin, but also contributes to protecting the neighbouring compartment, which may be a means of escape, or a place of refuge for disabled people.”
Understanding the relationship between different building elements helps support safety management by recognising the potential knock-on effects of changes to one element of a building on other elements. Accountable persons need to be able to demonstrate to the regulator and others that they are assessing and effectively managing building safety risks in a systematic and ongoing fashion, primarily through the building’s safety case report.
Section 85 of the Building Safety Act states that the principal accountable person “must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant time, prepare a report (a “safety case report”) containing:
The ‘relevant time’ is either when the building is occupied or, if later, when the principal accountable person becomes responsible for the building.
The regulator will assess safety case reports usually when determining a building assessment certificate application, and will determine whether building safety obligations are being delivered on an ongoing basis. The safety case report will describe the building and set out findings from building safety risk assessments, including the potential scenarios that have been identified and the likelihood of them occurring.
The safety case report should detail the measures that have been taken to remove, reduce and manage building safety risks. It should set out the arrangements, policies and procedures to ensure those risks are managed on a continuing basis. The golden thread is not just a set of information and policies, says the guidance, but “needs to be underpinned by policies and processes to ensure the information is accurate, up to date and accessible to the right people, whilst also being secure…It cannot be delivered as a product, a “software solution” or a consultancy service.”
The CLC’s guidance sums up the effect of the golden thread requirements on accountable persons by saying:
“Meeting the golden thread requirements will require some accountable persons to change their approach to management of information about buildings. Information should be recognised as being a valuable asset in itself. Ultimately, the golden thread of information will enable accountable persons to demonstrate to the BSR that the building is being managed safely and enable the BSR to verify this. It will also enable residents to access accurate and robust information about their building so they can feel safe in their homes.”
In addition to HRBs in occupation, the guidance from the Construction Leadership Council covers the legal basis of the golden thread, and its application during the design and construction phases of an HRB.
