BS 8644-1 Digital Management of Fire Safety

What is BS 8644-1 – Digital management of fire safety information?

The new national standard for the Digital Management of Fire Safety Information was established from a recommendation in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. BS 8644-1:2022 enables a standardised industry-wide approach to the management of fire safety information in the built environment.

Who is BS 8644-1 Digital Management of Fire Safety Information for?

The intended audience of the standard is any individual or organisation involved in the design, construction, occupation and maintenance of a built asset. The digital management of information is a crucial contribution to the golden thread, another recommendation from Dame Judith Hackitt’s report.

It is the responsibility of each individual organisation to contribute to the golden thread; thus, the Digital Management of Fire Safety should be referred to and used by every stakeholder throughout a building’s development & lifecycle.

What’s included in the BS 8644-1:2022 Standard?

The standard gives recommendations for the management, including the presentation, and exchange of fire safety information using digital information management processes. BS 8644-1:2022 covers the following stages of the lifecycle of assets in the built environment:

• Briefing

• Design

• Construction

• Asset Handover

• Operation

• Fire & Rescue Intervention

The standard also offers guidance to those that don’t directly handle fire safety information, ensuring that all building stakeholders can understand the importance of the handling of information and how it should be presented and accessed.

Why is BS 8644-1:2022 important?

Traditionally, the management of fire safety information was handled independently at each stage of a building’s life span, leading to obscured information and a broken chain of responsibility. To combat this, Dame Judith recommended that “Government should mandate a digital standard of record-keeping for the design, construction and during the occupation of new high rise residential buildings (HRBBs)”.

The purpose of BS 8644-1:2022 is to ensure that the relevant information related to fire safety is made available to the right people at the right time. The standard ensures that there is a transparent allocation of responsibility and consistent naming convention that will contribute to a greater knowledge of fire safety and a safer built environment.

UKTC ensure, BS 8644-1:2022 & the Golden Thread

Established in response to the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review, UKTC ensure is the first third-party certification scheme that is wholly aligned with the Golden Thread and as a result, follows the approach and guidance of BS 8644-1:2022.

Unlike legacy systems, UKTC ensure allows passive fire product manufacturers to create a single source of truth in the form of a secure digital landing page that can be accessed by those who need it, when they need it.

To find out more about UKTC ensure or start your certification journey, click here: https://www.uktc-ensure.com/