What it is
The golden thread is not one document. It is the body of information about the building that lets someone understand it and manage its safety: how it was designed and built, what has changed, and how the fire and structural risks are controlled.
Accountable persons must keep the prescribed information, keep it accurate and up to date, and give it to the regulator, residents and others when the regulations require.
The standards it must meet
The regulations and the regulator’s guidance describe how the information is held, as much as what it is:
- 1Digital, in a form that can be searched and read without special software.
- 2Accurate and up to date, with a record of what changed, when and who changed it.
- 3Secure, with access limited to the people who should have it.
- 4Available to the people who need it, when they need it, including the next owner or manager.
- 5Kept for the life of the building.
Where it starts
For new higher-risk buildings the thread starts at design and is handed over at completion. For buildings that were never digital, it starts with gathering what exists, recording what is missing and closing those gaps in order of risk.