The UK construction industry has invested millions in meeting the requirements of the Building Safety Act, yet, as Rob Norton, UK Director of PlanRadar, points out, a fundamental problem persists; as soon as a building opens its doors, its documentation starts being out-of-date and risks becoming invalid.
Every modification, repair and retrofit widens the gap between official records and reality. For facilities managers responsible for fire safety compliance, the considerable disconnect between outdated “as-built” documentation and the actual “as-is” state of a building creates genuine compliance risks and life-safety issues that demand urgent attention.
The problem with static documentation
Walk into many facilities management offices today, and you’ll find handover documentation filed away in ring binders or stored as PDFs. These documents capture what the building looked like at practical completion. Too often, they don’t reflect the modifications made during the first year of occupation, the emergency repairs carried out last winter, or the retrofit work completed last month.
Every time a sprinkler head is relocated, a fire door is replaced, or a compartmentation barrier is modified, the gap between documentation and reality widens. For fire safety professionals trying to maintain compliance, this creates an impossible situation. How can you demonstrate that your building meets current fire safety standards when your records don’t reflect what’s actually installed?
The financial and legal implications are substantial. In an increasingly regulated environment, with the Building Safety Regulator actively pursuing remediation cases, relying on static documentation represents a fundamental risk. We saw this clearly when the cladding crisis emerged, and building owners scrambled to verify what materials were actually clinging onto their buildings.
The Golden Thread: promise versus reality
The Building Safety Act introduced the ‘Golden Thread’ concept, which mandates accurate and accessible information to be available throughout a building’s lifecycle. This was a welcome response to the systemic failures identified in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Final Report concerning the Grenfell Disaster[1].
However, the industry’s implementation has often missed the mark. Many organisations have interpreted the Golden Thread as a document management exercise, and created ever larger collections of technical drawings and compliance certificates. They’ve built digital archives when what’s truly needed is living information.
The Golden Thread should mean that when a fire safety officer inspects a building, they can access current information about every fire safety system. When emergency responders arrive at an incident, they should be able to understand the building’s actual, present-day layout and fire protection measures.
This requires a fundamental shift from thinking about documents to thinking about data.
What digital fire safety looks like
The technology exists to maintain genuinely current building information. Modern platforms integrate fire safety audits, maintenance logs and inspection data directly into 3D building models. This creates real-time visibility of fire safety systems, their condition and compliance status.
Consider the practical benefits. A facilities manager planning routine maintenance can see at a glance which fire doors are due for inspection, which suppression systems were last serviced, and where previous defects were identified. When preparing for a regulatory audit, compliance evidence is immediately accessible rather than scattered across multiple filing systems.
For first responders, the advantage is even more critical. Accurate, digitally-accessible building information can provide immediate access to current floor plans, fire safety system locations, and compartmentation details. In an emergency, minutes matter. Having the latest information about today’s lived-in structure, as opposed to the architect’s original designs, could save lives.
The path ahead
The construction industry has shown it can adapt to new standards, from BIM to digital quality control. The shift to digital fire safety management is the next logical step.
For building owners and operators, the question is, how quickly can we make this transition? Static documentation is no longer fit for purpose, with risks to compliance and safety that are too significant to ignore. Fire safety professionals must ask themselves: can you prove your records reflect the actual state of your building right now? Could you provide that information to a regulator with confidence today?
The industry can deliver. What’s needed is the collective will to recognise that current, accessible fire safety information is a fundamental requirement for building safety, here and now.
The bar for fire safety standards has been raised. Our documentation practices must rise to meet it.
[1] Hackitt, J. (2018). Building a Safer Future: Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report (Cm 9607). Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. GOV.UK