ISO 19650-6 image

Published: new international standard for sharing health and safety information

The new international standard for sharing health and safety information throughout the lifecycles of built assets has been published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO 19650-6:2025 will help professionals meet Building Safety Act requirements to manage the golden thread of information for higher-risk buildings

Titled Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM) — Information management using building information modelling – Part 6: Health and safety information, the new standard is the final part of the ISO 19650 series. According to its ISO abstract, the document:

a)       specifies requirements for the collaborative sharing of structured health and safety information throughout project and asset life cycles;

b)       supports the digitization of structured health and safety information in project and asset life cycles progressively from the outset;

c)        provides specification on how health and safety information is shared for use throughout project and asset life cycle;

d)       sets out a health and safety information cycle framework for the identification, use, sharing and generalization of health and safety information through information management processes.

This document is applicable to individuals and organizations that contribute to and influence the procurement, design, construction, use (including maintenance) and end-of-life of building and infrastructure assets.

The principles and requirements of this document can be applied equally to delivery or in-use phases not using BIM.

The new international standard was authored by Nick Nisbet, vice-chair of buildingSMART UK & Ireland (bSUKI – part of nima), and he gives some background to it in a BIMplus article, ISO 19650-6: information management for health and safety standard published (21 January 2025). Nisbet explains how the standard approach supports the Building Safety Act requirement to manage the golden thread of information for higher-risk buildings.

“… it helps ensure that the information isn’t lost or overlooked. It structures information about risks, and not only health and safety risks, but also incidents and mitigations, so that everyone in the project can access that information – principal designer, principal contractor and owner. The roles of principal designer and contractor are  quite isolated, and so this should help bring them into the whole team.”

The standard has three main parts:

  • how to structure health and safety information;
  • the information requirements that should be added to the contracts and appointments to support its use; and
  • how the process fits in with the ISO 19650 process overall.

It will be officially launched at the BSI Built Environment Summit on Wednesday 26 March 2025.

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