Every high-risk building needs a Digital System of Record (DSoR)

We are rapidly approaching the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Despite the solemn commitment of the UK government to act, little progress has been made with regard to addressing fire safety in high-risk buildings, or the regulatory environment that governs them.

Even with the global profile of Grenfell, the subsequent report by Dame Judith Hackitt, and the government commitment to implement her findings in full, the property industry has failed to make meaningful changes to their life and fire safety approach.

It's almost as though the firms involved are asleep at the wheel, or to be a little kinder, waiting for the new regulator to give them explicit instructions of how they should behave!

To quote Dame Judith Hackitt:

“I said in my review we did not need to wait for the regulation before people started to change their behaviours. That is what we have been trying to push for and now we have that clear message from government that the regulations are going to be implemented in full there is a need for us to underline that. That there really is no reason to wait for the regulation before the behaviour change starts to happen.”

One of the key findings of the Hackitt report was that all high-risk buildings should establish a ‘golden thread’ of digital fire and life safety information. In the TrackMyRisks world, we call this a Digital System of Record (DSoR)

There is absolutely no technical or financial reason why 100% of landlords with high-risk buildings in their portfolio can’t set up a DSoR for each property right now, immediately, today.

Populating a DSoR to a consistent standard will give every landlord:

• Certainty that essential information exists
• Certainty that essential information can be found
• Certainty that essential information is within date and current
• Certainty that all stakeholders have interacted with essential information
• Certainty that their essential information is secure
• Certainty that historical essential information is retained

My consistent advice to dutyholders is: “if it’s not published into the DSoR then it doesn’t exist.” Adopting this binary approach to governance, risk and compliance at a per building level will drive a culture of compliance and personal responsibility.

Compliance is a science, not a belief.

Q: “Mr or Mrs dutyholder, do you have a current Fire Risk Assessment for building ‘X’?”

A: “I am pretty sure we have” or “XXX team are usually very good” or “I trust XXX to do this” - WRONG

The correct answer is: “Yes, it is published in our DSoR, would you like to see it?”

With a DSoR in place and dutyholders performing the correct level of oversight, this would not have happened at Grenfell. A station manager told the inquiry:

“Vital plans showing the layout of Grenfell Tower could not be found on the morning of the deadly fire.”

Fire and life safety information is subject to constant review and change, so it’s essential that stakeholders (Fire Service, Building Control, Residents etc) are permanently permissioned to access relevant information within the DSoR. The days of searching for a ‘firebox’ within a burning building is not acceptable in this digital age.

Over time, as new regulation is adopted, an immutable log of documentation, data and behavioural activity will be accumulated for every high-risk building within the DSoR. Aggregation of this data will help the industry learn about the management of risk and adapt in an agile fashion.

I will be presenting to the Tall Building Fire Safety Conference in London next week on the subject of ‘Making Compliance Digital’

During this talk, I will be challenging the audience of fire safety thought leaders to establish a Digital System of Record for every high-risk building - NOW!

I look forward to working with Landlords, Regulators, Fire Risk Consultants, Architects, Construction Managers, Fire Services and Residents to get this done.

Together we can save lives.