The government says it has received feedback about the effectiveness of multiple systems to share building safety information

The ‘golden thread’ digital record of a building’s information required to be kept under the Building Safety Act (BSA) can be stored on multiple systems, the government has decided.

building safety high rise

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) outlined its decision yesterday evening in a response to a consultation on regulations to bring in BSA measures later this year.

Under the government’s building safety reforms, dutyholders-defined as clients, principle contractors and principle designers - will be required to maintain a “golden thread” of information about a building throughout its lifecycle.

The idea, government has said, is this digital record is a “single source of truth” about all relevant information about a building, such as how it is constructed, how it is maintained and how safety has been designed into it.

It said: “Upon further consideration the government has decided that to deliver a single source of truth it is not necessary for all the golden thread information to be stored in a single system.

“The government has noted feedback from stakeholders about their use of multiple systems and how this can deliver effective outcomes. The government is committed to ensuring the golden thread of information is kept up to date, can be effectively used to deliver safe outcomes and can be transferred.” DLUHC added that it is for the industry to ensure the approaches taken deliver this.

The assumption of many in the industry previously has been that “a single source of truth” accessible by different parties equates to information being held on a single system.

The government’s full response to its consultation on the new safety regime for occupied higher-risk buildings can be found here. It has also published a response to its consultation on proposals for a new building control regime here.