In England, the Building Safety Act 2022 requires a digital golden thread of information for higher-risk buildings. We help clients, project teams and building owners get it right, using the ISO 19650 series and BS 8644-1.
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The golden thread is a maintained digital record that helps people understand a building, show it complies and keep it safe, from design and construction through the years people live in it. It's both the information itself and the way it's managed.
On 14 June 2017, a fire at Grenfell Tower in west London took the lives of 72 people. Dame Judith Hackitt's independent review of building regulations and fire safety found that information about buildings was often missing, out of date or impossible to find when it mattered.
Her report, Building a Safer Future, called for a golden thread of information. The Building Safety Act 2022 made it a legal requirement for higher-risk buildings, overseen by the Building Safety Regulator.
Read more: Building a Safer Future (GOV.UK) · Golden thread guidance (GOV.UK) · Delivering the Golden Thread: Construction Leadership Council guidance (2024)
Higher-risk buildings in England: at least 18 metres or 7 storeys with at least 2 residential units. In design and construction, hospitals and care homes of that height are included too. Check the detailed definitions for your building.
Everyone with a duty under the Act shares one thread of information. Work can be given to others, but legal duties stay with each dutyholder.
Higher-risk building work passes three checkpoints. Good information makes each one smoother.
Six practical steps to building safety information you can trust.
An 8-page, plain-English guide: who holds the golden thread, the THREAD Framework, five handover tests, ISO 19650, BS 8644-1 and FIREie, and a worked fire door example. Plus a bonus workbook.
Get the free guideThe law sets the duties and the information required. Standards give you a proven way to manage it, though none of them proves legal compliance on its own.
| Standard | How it helps the golden thread |
|---|---|
| ISO 19650 series | The engine: information requirements, roles, a common data environment and controlled exchange across a building's whole life. ISO 19650 explained |
| ISO 19650-6 | Health and safety information, building on PAS 1192-6. |
| BS 8644-1:2022 | The British Standard for digital management of fire safety information, through design, construction, handover, asset management and emergency response. Works with ISO 19650. |
| FIREie | The fire information exchange process in BS 8644-1. It needs agreed content, people, timing and checks at each planned exchange point. |
| COBie | Structured handover of asset data into operations and maintenance systems. |
| ISO 7817-1 | Level of information need: just enough information, at the right time (it replaced BS EN 17412-1). |
| ISO 55001 | Asset management systems: keeping the golden thread working through the whole life of the building. |
No. Neither is a legal requirement. PDFs and spreadsheets can be part of the answer: what matters is the content, the controls and usable access.
You can give them the work, but not the legal duty. Accountable Persons and the Principal Accountable Person keep their legal obligations.
Not on its own. The standards are a proven way to manage the information; the law sets what's required. Use both together.
The fire information exchange process introduced in BS 8644-1:2022. It doesn't prescribe a schema; it needs agreed content, people, timing and checks at each exchange.
The Building Safety Act expects dutyholders to have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours their role needs, and organisations to have the capability to match. Our guide and training build awareness and shared understanding. They support, but never replace, the competence each dutyholder must be able to demonstrate.
Build it, keep it, prove it.
Eight pages, plain English, with the THREAD Framework and a bonus workbook.
Get the free guideISO 19650 in 10 minutes, freeThis page is general information, not legal advice. Always check the current legislation and official guidance, including the Construction Leadership Council's Delivering the Golden Thread, and take advice from competent legal, fire and structural professionals. Legal duties stay with each dutyholder.