Legal Q&A: Building information modelling
Kirsty Paterson-Hunter, Associate, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang
FOLLOWING the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 the UK government published the Building Safety Act 2022 (the BSA), which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2022, with some provisions taking effect immediately and the remainder expected to come into force within the next 18 months. Running alongside the Fire Safety Act, which gained Royal Assent in 2021, the main aim of the act is to overhaul the current UK building safety regime, bringing in a regime requiring a consistent, accountable and evidential approach to building safety risks, to be considered throughout the lifecycle of a building, from the planning stages through to its day to day running.
Some of the key changes the BSA looks to make include:
- The creation of an ‘accountable person’ role in a building, who is responsible for prioritising the safety of residents throughout the entire life cycle of the building and ensuring records and changes are captured and preserved;
- The introduction of a ‘golden thread’ of safety information about the entire building for its lifespan;
- Imposing additional statutory duties on construction design and management (CDM) duty holders; and
- The establishment of a new building safety regulator to ensure and maintain compliance and accountability with these new responsibilities.
What is the ‘golden thread’?
Before the BSA, building and fire safety regulations have been divided into:
- Pre-construction regulations, dealing with design approval and planning etc, and
- Post construction regulation for once the building is complete, occupied and in use.
This two-stage approach disconnects the hand over stage from the contractor to the maintenance of the building once operational and can result in the lack of a complete paper trail of information being maintained for a building. For instance, buildings frequently undergo structural changes after the initial design has been approved, but this is not always documented in an accessible way.
When trying to determine the safety predications of the building, lack of up-to-date information can make it difficult for accurate assessments to be made and contingency plans to be formulated. All of which in turn can put the building and its residents at risk.
This is where the proposed ‘golden thread’ comes in. The ‘golden thread’ concept requires that all building information should be available digitally and should include all information needed to understand the building, how to manage it and should demonstrate compliance with specified building regulations. Such information can include, all architectural plans, information on the height and size of the building, notes of materials used and those who installed them, all safety and fire provision information and records of all consultations, inspections, reviews, maintenance tests and evidence of those who undertook them. If a new inspection or update to the building occurs, fresh evidence should then be added to replace any outdated documentation to create one solid, easily followable thread of information. The ‘golden thread’ will apply to all ‘higher risk buildings’ over seven storeys or 18 metres and containing at least two residential units.
Can BIM help achieve the ‘golden thread’?
How information is managed and made accessible will be an essential part of the ‘golden thread’ requirement. Project managers will require to establish and maintain software platforms that allow them to meet their new statutory obligations. The UK government already requires BIM on all publicly procured projects. Could BIM support the implementation of the ‘golden thread’ across all major building developments?
The ‘golden thread’ concept requires that all building information should be available digitally and should include all information needed to understand the building, how to manage it and should demonstrate compliance with specified building regulations.BIM methodology includes taking traditionally 2D information and plans and creating information rich, 3D models of the entire project. These models contain all the building information. Most importantly the models are interactive, allowing changes and updates to the building to be scoped and tried at any stage to see their impact on the building as a whole e.g. building capacity, access, light, ventilation, temperature/energy flow, costs and durability etc. This is also useful in considering accessibility and optimal routes for the purpose of disability access, movement flow and safe evacuation.
There are clear synergies between what the BSA requires for the ‘golden thread’ and what BIM can provide. For example, BIM’s ‘clash detection’ could highlight where safety features such as fire exits or water hydrants are compromised, or where introduction of new mechanical and electrical systems equipment might impact on existing sprinkler/misting systems. Undoubtedly, there will be a cost to implementing and upskilling site teams to use BIM adding further costs to an industry already working on tight margins and suffering price volatility. However, the BSA will make access to such a platform essential for passing data to the ‘accountable person’ at handover.
Additionally, having the right contract provisions in place for implementing such a system will be key, taking into consideration any added design or insurance liability that might occur from collaboration and data sharing on this type of shared information platform.
Conclusion
The use of BIM on construction projects looks likely to become much more widespread, as the new obligations under the BSA come into force. BIM may well provide the required consistency to project data collection and maintenance, with which the industry already has some experience, creating a trusted paper trail in a common place that is easily shared and transferred between all parties across the lifecycle of a project.
BIM can help project managers and clients achieve and maintain this consistent thread of project data, change their model of risk management, and work collaboratively on collecting and maintaining data, by shifting the information to a digital platform, where everything is in one easily accessible secure location that can be efficiently updated. Ultimately, allowing duty holders to have sufficient evidence that they are maintaining safety standards throughout the building’s lifecycle.
Kirsty Paterson-Hunter, Associate, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang
kirsty.paterson-hunter@cms-cmno.com