Why the Building Safety Act 2022 Makes 3D Building Models Essential
Written by: NavLive MarketingPublished: September 9th, 2025
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The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and its supporting guidance created one of the most significant overhauls of building safety in a generation.
At its heart is a simple but powerful idea: for certain buildings, there must be a reliable, up-to-date, digital “single source of truth” — the so-called golden thread — that captures everything anyone needs to know to keep people safe.
That requirement has real implications for how buildings are surveyed, managed and documented, and it’s where high-resolution 3D capture and the NavLive Scanner become a game-changer.
What the Law Actually Requires
The Building Safety Act 2022 creates a higher-risk regime for certain buildings and places new duties on owners, clients, designers and contractors to keep digital records of building information.
This digital record is commonly called the golden thread.
A higher-risk building in occupation is generally defined as a building in England that is at least 18 metres high or has at least 7 storeys and contains at least 2 residential units. There are specified exclusions (for example, some buildings that are entirely hospitals or care homes are excluded from the occupation part of the higher-risk regime).
The golden thread must be a digital, secure, accessible record that demonstrates compliance with building regulations and holds the information necessary to assess and manage building safety risks.
The guidance lists the types of building information to be handed over at completion, including drawings, plans, fire safety information, completion certificates and any other design/construction evidence.
The guidance and industry best practice are clear that 3D point clouds, BIM models and other accurate digital as-built records are excellent ways to satisfy the golden thread requirement and are widely recommended for higher-risk buildings and the handover process.
Important legal nuance: the Act and guidance require a digital, accurate record; they do not prescribe a single technological format (e.g. “you must deliver a 3D model”).
Why a 3D Model (Point Cloud/BIM) is So Useful for Golden-Thread Compliance
A well-created 3D record solves many pain points the Act is trying to address:
Single source of truth: A geo-registered point cloud + associated BIM or documentation gives future dutyholders exact, verifiable geometry and location of critical elements (compartment walls, escape routes, services, plant). That’s exactly the sort of high-quality information the golden thread must contain.
Faster, safer inspections: Fire-safety and structure inspections can be done against the model, remotely or on-site, with precise measurements and annotated evidence.
Reduced handover friction: At completion you must hand over plans, construction records and fire information. A 3D model bundles spatial information visually and in exportable formats (BIM, IFC, CAD, etc.), making the handover much cleaner.
Fit for life-cycle management: The golden thread is maintained through occupation; a 3D model is easily updated after refurbishments, works or changes, keeping the “thread” continuous.
How the NavLive Scanner Helps You Comply with the Regulations
1) Building Capture: Walk the Building, Floor-by-Floor
The NavLive Scanner captures high-resolution 3D point clouds as an operator walks each floor. Because the NavLive Scanner is portable and designed for rapid capture, you can collect accurate geometry, doors, stairwells, ceiling voids and services routes with minimal disruption.
In many small-to-medium floorplates an entire floor can be captured in minutes; an entire building’s as-built point cloud can often be produced within an hour or so for compact buildings (larger buildings will take longer).
This provides the accurate spatial record the golden thread demands.
2) Process: Point Cloud → As-Built Deliverables
Captured point clouds from the NavLive Scanner export to standard formats used by surveyors and BIM teams (e.g. LAS, E57). From there you can:
Register and stitch scans into a single geo-referenced point cloud.
Extract floor plans, elevations and sections directly from the cloud.
Produce or update federated BIM/IFC models for the building (as-built BIM).
These deliverables map directly to the list of building information the guidance expects to be handed over (drawings, plans, fire safety info, etc.). That means the NavLive workflow isn’t a fancy extra. It can form an integral central part of your golden-thread package, depending on your wider digital strategy and integrations.
3) Verify & Maintain: Quick Re-scans and Versioning
The golden thread requires version control and the ability to demonstrate updates after works.
The NavLive Scanner makes it practical to re-scan after a refurbishment or major change, compare the new point cloud to the previous model, and update the digital record quickly, maintaining a clear, time-stamped chain of truth for inspectors and the BSR.
The Building Safety Act also requires the golden thread to be secure, accessible and updatable over the lifetime of the building. NavLive supports this with unlimited, lifetime cloud-based storage for your 3D records, which are also downloadable for use alongside your compliant digital storage system.
This ensures your data is always accessible, version-controlled and ready for integration into the wider golden-thread framework.
NavLive Scanner Deliverables That Map to Golden-Thread Needs
Geo-registered 3D point cloud (E57/LAS) as the master spatial record.
Extracted CAD floor plans and elevations for handover paperwork.
Tagged views and annotated snapshots for fire strategy and safety case evidence.
Export to BIM/IFC or integration with asset-management systems for life-cycle maintenance.
All of these make the compliance pack discoverable, auditable and usable by building owners, the BSR and emergency services.
Real Business Benefits
Time savings: on-site capture with the NavLive Scanner typically takes a fraction of the time of traditional survey crews with tripods. Resulting in fewer site hours, and lower cost.
Reduced rework: accurate as-built geometry reduces mistakes when refurbishing or installing new plant and services.
Evidence for the safety case: the safety case needs reliable building data. Point clouds and automatic photo capture from the Scanner provide visual, measurable evidence.
A Simple 6-Step NavLive Scanner Workflow for Golden-Thread Readiness
Plan the capture: Define floors/areas, access, and deliverable formats.
Scan: Walk the NavLive Scanner floor-by-floor, capturing overlapping data for reliable registration.
Process: Stitch point clouds, geo-reference and run QA checks.
Extract: Produce floor plans, elevations, IFC/BIM exports and annotated views.
Package: Assemble the digital handover (drawings, certificates, fire info, point clouds/BIM) for the accountable person.
Maintain: Store in a secure digital system with versioning and re-scan after works.
Checklist for Accountable Persons
Have you confirmed if the building is a higher-risk building under the Act?
≥18m, or…
≥7 storeys with ≥2 residential units
Do you have a digital record-keeping system with version control and secure access?
Do your completion handover documents include as-built spatial data (plans, point clouds or BIM) and fire safety information?
If not, plan a NavLive Scanner capture and integrate the outputs into your golden-thread repository.
Final Takeaways
The Building Safety Act 2022 requires that in-scope buildings have an accurate, accessible digital record that can be used to demonstrate and manage safety over the building’s life-cycle.
While the law doesn’t literally say “you must supply a 3D point cloud,” the golden thread’s goals are best met by precise, auditable spatial records, exactly what modern 3D scanning and as-built BIM provide.
Using the NavLive Scanner turns what used to be a slow, expensive process into a fast, repeatable workflow that maps directly to the golden-thread requirements: capture floor-by-floor, export standard formats, hand over a secure digital package, and maintain versioned updates.
Want to Know More?
We would love the opportunity to visit your office and show you how the NavLive Scanner can help you comply with regulations set out in the Building Safety Act 2022.
To get started, book a demo with our team today by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
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Disclaimer: This publication is issued by NavLive Limited to provide general guidance only on best practice. If you require advice on a specific issue, you should seek your own independent professional advice.
Written by NavLive Marketing
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