The Building Safety Act 2022 changed how buildings in England are designed, built and managed, and it changed what evidence contractors need to keep. For higher-risk buildings in particular, the information about how a building was built has to be kept, accurate and accessible for its whole life. That information is the golden thread.
This article is an overview, not legal advice. The Building Safety Regulator, part of the Health and Safety Executive, publishes the official guidance, and your project's dutyholders should follow it.
Who it applies to
The strictest requirements apply to higher-risk buildings: in broad terms, buildings in England at least 18 metres tall or with at least seven storeys that contain at least two residential units, along with certain other building types such as hospitals and care homes during design and construction.
The wider dutyholder regime under the Building Regulations, with its duties for principal designers and principal contractors to plan, manage and monitor work so it complies, applies to building work more generally.
What the golden thread is
The golden thread is the information that allows someone to understand a building and keep it safe. For higher-risk buildings it has to be:
- Kept digitally, in a structured way.
- Accurate and up to date, reflecting what was actually built, not just what was designed.
- Secure, with control over who can change it.
- Accessible to the people who need it, when they need it.
- A single source of truth, rather than copies scattered across organisations.
The gateways
For higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Regulator acts as the building control authority, and projects pass through gateways:
- Gateway 2 is before building work starts: the regulator must approve the building control application.
- Gateway 3 is at completion: the regulator must issue a completion certificate before the building can be occupied.
At Gateway 3, the information handed over has to show the building as built, including how changes during construction were controlled.
What it means for quality records
Much of the evidence that the work was built correctly comes from the quality process. That means:
- Inspections recorded at the time, with who inspected, what was checked and the result.
- Non-conformances with a complete history: what was wrong, what was done and who verified it.
- Change control: which drawing revision the work was built from, and how changes were approved.
- Competence: evidence that the people doing and checking the work were competent to do so.
- Records that can't be quietly altered after the fact.
Paper files assembled at the end of the job rarely meet this standard. The information needs to be captured as the work happens.
Note: Ask yourself whether you could show, for any wall, floor or system, who inspected it, against which drawing revision, and what happened to anything that failed. If the answer takes a week, your records aren't a golden thread yet.
How Traklio helps
Traklio records every inspection, NCR, approval and document revision as it happens, with who did what and when, in an audit trail that can't be edited. Drawings and documents are under revision control, so you can show which revision work was built from. And the verified professional record builds evidence of competence from work that someone else has signed off.
See how Traklio keeps the record, or talk to us about your project.