Cross-sector Building Safety Alliance invites collaborators for golden thread tools

The Building Safety Alliance, a cross-sector collaboration of leading industry figures and various associations and bodies, is inviting stakeholders in the occupation phase to join the collaboration to further contribute to the development of a standardised approach to support accountable persons in discharging their duties in relation to the golden thread.

The Building Safety Act 2022 requires accountable persons to demonstrate the effective assessment and management of building safety risks. Since engaging in Government consultations for the legislation, the Building Safety Alliance has been developing guidance to enable the sector to comply with the legislation’s objectives and its regulatory requirements regarding the golden thread. Now it has reached a point in developing this standardised approach where it would be helpful to get third parties involved. Having collated a master list of relevant documents and other sources on information, the Alliance wishes to validate and then proceed to the development of a recognised structure to collate both historic and current information which is codified to allow sharing to the right people, in the right form, and at the right time, to support better decision-making.

Gordon Mitchell, Chair of the Building Safety Alliance Special Interest Group 3, said: “I’m proud to help drive this cross-sector collaboration, which involves the key stakeholders from across the digital built environment world. Our aim in this work is to deliver on the 2023 needs while future-proofing them for a long-term vision of a fully integrated and digitally enabled built environment of the 2050 world. We invite others in this space to collaborate with us so we can simplify the complex regulatory environment for those needing to navigate it.”

The guidance under development looks to integrate existing standards and industry frameworks - such as ISO19650, various safety standards and Uniclass, - to enable harmonisation and compatibility, streamline processes, and enhance information sharing across the built environment. In achieving this, the guidance should help to provide greater clarity and transparency overall.

The guidance focuses on three key areas:

• Information Requirements and Alignment - The Golden Thread List: A master list of documents and other information sources currently used by industry, which can be used to identify the key data which needs to be specified for the Golden Thread Information Requirements. This can then be aligned to a standardised data structure which can collate and exchange both historical and current data in a manner which provides the golden thread of information required to manage buildings throughout the building safety lifecycle. This work can form the basis of a pragmatic and achievable roadmap allowing people to progress towards their digital future, wherever they may be on that journey.
• Personas: An inclusive and well-defined model of individuals and communities affected by the Building Safety Act and their specific information management requirements, with a view to providing targeted support.
• Impact Assessment and Support: To effectively address the impact on stakeholders identified in the previous areas, this guidance aims to qualify the broad impacts and identify potential support mechanisms.

Sarah Delany, Head of Classification at NBS, the organisation behind Uniclass, said: “We were delighted to support this important work by allocating the right, and sometimes newly developed, Uniclass codes. For decades we have supported the requirement for high-quality, easily accessible, and interoperable asset and product information - this golden thread project builds on a strong foundation and will be pivotal towards better information sharing and more informed decision-making about building safety.”

Dr Anne Kemp, OBE Chair of nima and Technical Director at SNC Lavalin, Atkins Ltd said: “nima is a strong advocate of industry collaboration and coordination to propel the advancement of better information management for the built environment. The work undertaken to integrate information management processes through standards such as the ISO 19650 series for the improvement of delivery and managing of safer buildings is critical. We welcome the push for digitalisation, standardisation and a cultural change within the sector which will allow us to simplify information for the end user.”

For more information and to enquire about collaborating on the Building Safety Alliance’s work, please visit buildingsafetyalliance.org.uk.

ENDS

11th September 2023