Compliance & Governance

The obligations are clear.
The uncertainty
is in the execution.

The Building Safety Act created unambiguous obligations. What it did not create was clarity about how those obligations are met in practice — what evidence is sufficient, what processes are adequate, what documentation satisfies a regulator. That uncertainty is where liability accrues. STRAND removes it — across the entire supply chain, from the Principal Designer to the site operative.

Duty Holder Competence — PAS Frameworks

Named. Declared.
Evidenced. Tracked.

Competence is not a general concept under the Building Safety Act. It is a specific, structured obligation tied to named standards and named individuals. Every duty holder must demonstrate competence against the relevant PAS — documented, verifiable, and current throughout the project lifecycle. STRAND tracks all of it.

PAS 8671
Principal Designer
Competence framework for principal designers. Knowledge, skills, experience, and behaviours required to manage building safety through the design phase of higher-risk buildings.
Declaration required at Gateway 2. Currency maintained through completion. Gaps trigger automatic RFI escalation in STRAND.
PAS 8672
Principal Contractor
Competence framework for principal contractors. Management of building safety through the construction phase — from Gateway 2 approval to completion certificate.
Declaration required at Gateway 2. Evidenced against specific construction activities. STRAND tracks currency and flags renewal obligations.
PAS 8673
Building Safety Manager
Competence framework for building safety managers in the occupation phase. The obligation to appoint a competent BSM must be evidenced before Gateway 3.
Appointment and competence demonstrated as part of Gateway 3. STRAND monitors appointment status and tracks declaration currency.
PAS 8674
Building Safety Manager (Supplementary)
Supplementary competence framework for complex or mixed-use higher-risk buildings where the standard PAS 8673 framework does not fully apply.
Where applicable, declaration against PAS 8674 supplements PAS 8673. STRAND identifies where the supplementary framework is required and tracks both.
Supply Chain Governance

Compliance doesn't stop
at the duty holders.
Neither does STRAND.

The Building Safety Act places named obligations on Principal Designers and Principal Contractors. But those obligations are delivered through a supply chain that extends from design consultants to specialist subcontractors to individual site operatives. Every link in that chain that fails creates a liability that flows upward. STRAND monitors the whole chain.

Design Tier
Architects & Engineers
Drawing register, revision tracking, scope management, RFI routing, competence declaration monitoring. Every drawing issued by every discipline — registered, compared, and audited automatically.
STRAND detects changes, raises RFIs to the originating discipline, and logs every revision to the golden thread.
Design Tier
Fire Engineers
Fire strategy compliance tracking, compartmentation register, fire door schedule, escape route monitoring. Every change to a fire safety element is detected and classified — automatically, on every scan.
Fire strategy departures trigger immediate RFI escalation. Critical changes generate construction phase fire plans and HSEQ notifications.
Commercial Tier
Quantity Surveyors & Cost Managers
NRM2 bill of quantities generated directly from drawing intelligence. Elemental cost plan, compensation event tracking, scope change valuation. The cost picture follows the design — not the other way around.
Every scope change detected by STRAND updates the BoQ and cost plan automatically. No manual re-measurement required.
Construction Tier
Specialist Subcontractors
Document submission via email — drawings, method statements, material specifications, COSHH assessments, competence certificates. STRAND receives, routes, and logs everything to the golden thread automatically.
Subcontractor documents are matched to the project, filed to the correct folder, and trigger a rescan. Nothing is lost. Everything is timestamped.
Construction Tier
HSEQ Management
Risk register, occurrence reporting, change control escalation, work stop notifications, competence tracking across the workforce. Every HSEQ obligation on a higher-risk building project — monitored and structured.
Major changes trigger immediate HSEQ notification. Work stop is flagged on the dashboard and communicated to all relevant parties before work continues.
Construction Tier
Site Management
Construction phase fire plan, change control instructions, occurrence register, as-built documentation. Site-level decisions that affect building safety are captured, classified, and logged — not discovered retrospectively at Gateway 3.
STRAND's autonomous inbox means site teams can submit documents and photos directly. Every submission is logged to the golden thread with sender, timestamp, and content.
Certification & Data Intelligence

Every certificate.
Every specification.
Tracked and verified.

Building safety compliance is not just about processes and documents. It is about the physical products installed in the building — their certifications, their fire ratings, their compatibility with each other. STRAND monitors product certification and harvests structured data from the document set throughout construction.

Fire Door Certification
Every fire door detected in the drawing set is registered in STRAND's fire door schedule. Third-party certification references — BWF-CERTIFIRE, BM TRADA Q-Mark — are monitored. Where fire doors are detected without confirmed certification, STRAND raises an immediate RFI to the Principal Designer. No fire door is installed without a traceable certification chain.
STRAND monitors
Door leaf specification, certification scheme, self-closing device, intumescent strip, smoke seal, ironmongery compatibility. Missing ironmongery schedules trigger automatic RFIs.
External Wall System Intelligence
Post-Grenfell, the external wall system is the most scrutinised element of any higher-risk building. STRAND's fire engine reads EWS references from specifications and drawings, monitors against PAS 9980 requirements, and flags any change to cladding, insulation, or cavity barrier specification as a potential major change requiring BSR notification.
STRAND monitors
Cladding system specification, insulation fire classification, cavity barrier continuity, EWS1 assessment status. Any downgrade in fire classification triggers work stop classification.
Structural Certification
Structural changes on higher-risk buildings require careful classification under the change control regime. STRAND detects structural amendments in the drawing set through geometry comparison and keywords, escalates to the structural engineer and Principal Designer, and classifies the change against the three-tier regime. Structural changes that compromise the approved design are flagged as major.
STRAND monitors
Structural drawing revisions, load path changes, connection amendments. Major structural changes trigger work stop and automatic escalation to the full duty holder chain.
Data Harvesting & Intelligence
Every scan STRAND runs produces structured data. Drawing metadata, fire element registers, risk scores, cost data, competence declarations, occurrence records — all stored in a structured project database. This data is not just a record — it is intelligence. It feeds the golden thread, drives the BSR readiness audit, powers the cost plan, and informs the programme risk assessment. Nothing is siloed. Everything talks to everything else.
STRAND produces
Structured project database, drawing register, fire register, risk register, BoQ, cost plan, competence register, occurrence register, change control log, golden thread — all updated automatically on every scan.
Where Uncertainty Lives

The gaps between
obligation and practice.

What does a valid golden thread look like?
The Building Safety Act requires a golden thread. It does not define precisely what form it must take, what information it must contain, or what level of granularity satisfies the regulator. That discretion creates uncertainty — and uncertainty creates liability.
STRAND's Answer
An immutable chronological audit log from the first scan. Every drawing revision, RFI, change control entry, and competence update — logged with timestamp, source, and context. Built automatically. Not assembled at the end.
When is a change major?
Regulations 18–26 identify trigger categories. But the boundary between notifiable and major is a judgement call. Making that judgement incorrectly — in either direction — carries consequences. Under-classifying a major change is a regulatory breach. Over-classifying delays the programme unnecessarily.
STRAND's Answer
Every detected design change is classified automatically against the Regulation 26 trigger map. Classification is documented and logged. Major changes are flagged immediately. The judgement is made by the system — consistently, every time.
Is my competence declaration current?
Declarations are made at a point in time. CPD obligations, renewal cycles, and changes in scope all affect currency. Most duty holders have no systematic way to track whether their declaration — or those of their supply chain — remains valid.
STRAND's Answer
Declaration dates, renewal obligations, and CPD requirements are monitored for all duty holders in the project directory. Where currency lapses, an RFI is raised automatically and the BSR readiness score is updated.
What is a reportable occurrence?
The MORP must define six categories of reportable occurrence. Identifying whether a specific site event falls within those categories requires judgement. Failing to report is a regulatory breach. Misreporting signals poor governance to the regulator.
STRAND's Answer
The occurrence register uses the six statutory categories to classify events as they are recorded. The MORP is generated automatically and kept current. Reportable occurrences trigger immediate escalation to the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor.
Change Control — Regulations 18–26

Every controlled change.
Automatically classified.

Every change to a higher-risk building design during construction must be classified, recorded, and — where required — reported to the BSR before work proceeds. STRAND detects changes from the drawing set and classifies them automatically. No change goes unrecorded. No major change goes unnoticed.

Recordable
Record and retain
A change that must be logged to the change control register and retained in the golden thread. No BSR notification required. Work continues. Routine construction changes — material substitutions of equal specification, minor dimensional amendments.
Log to change control register. Retain in golden thread. No BSR notification required.
STRAND Detects
  • Minor material substitution (equal specification)
  • Non-structural dimensional amendment
  • Specification clarification within approved scope
  • Drawing correction — no design change
Notifiable
Notify before proceeding
A change that must be notified to the BSR before the relevant work proceeds. The BSR must be informed within 14 days. Work may continue unless the BSR directs otherwise. Product substitutions, compartmentation adjustments, ventilation changes.
Notify BSR within 14 days. Log and retain. Continue work unless directed otherwise.
STRAND Detects
  • Fire door specification change
  • Compartmentation boundary adjustment
  • Ventilation system modification
  • Product substitution (fire-relevant)
  • Scope change beyond approved works
Major
Stop work — BSR approval required
A change that fundamentally affects building safety. Work stops immediately on the affected elements. BSR must approve before resumption. Escape routes, structural elements, external wall systems, active or passive fire measures.
Work stops immediately. BSR notification required. No resumption without approval.
STRAND Detects
  • Escape route configuration change
  • External wall system modification
  • Structural element alteration
  • Active fire suppression system change
  • Passive fire protection system change
  • Product substitution — lower fire classification
Regulatory Framework

Every decision grounded
in statute.

STRAND does not interpret regulations. It applies them. Every RFI, every change classification, every checklist item, every document generation references a specific statutory or normative source.

ReferenceDescriptionSTRAND Application
Building Safety Act 2022Primary legislation — duty holder framework, gateway regime, golden thread, occurrence reportingAll engines
HRB Procedures Regs 2023Regs 18–26 change control tiers — Gateway application requirements — Schedule 1 checklistChange control, BSR audit
ISO 19650Information management using BIM — naming conventions — information requirementsDrawing intelligence, register
ISO 5457Drawing sheet standards — title block location — sheet size and orientationDrawing validation
Approved Document BFire safety — compartmentation, escape routes, detection and suppression systemsFire engine
Approved Documents A–SBuilding Regulations compliance frameworkBRCS generation
BS 9991:2015Fire safety in the design of residential buildingsFire engine — residential
BS 9999:2017Code of practice for fire safety in non-residential buildingsFire engine — commercial
PAS 9980:2022Fire risk appraisal of external wall constructionFire engine — EWS
PAS 8671Principal Designer competence frameworkCompetence engine
PAS 8672Principal Contractor competence frameworkCompetence engine
PAS 8673Building Safety Manager competence frameworkCompetence engine
PAS 8674Building Safety Manager supplementary competence frameworkCompetence engine
NRM2 (RICS)Measurement of building works — bill of quantities methodologyBoQ engine
BCIS Q1 2026Benchmark cost rates for elemental cost planningCost engine
Build UK Validation Guide Feb 2026BSR Gateway 2 application validation criteriaBSR audit engine
CLC Guidance Suite July 2025Construction Leadership Council competence guidanceCompetence engine
BWF-CERTIFIRE / BM TRADA Q-MarkThird-party fire door certification schemesFire door schedule, certification tracking
BS 8214:2016Fire door assemblies — code of practice for installationFire door schedule
CDM Regulations 2015Construction design and management — Reg 31 construction phase fire plansFire plan markup engine

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