The Process Innovation Factory (PIF), aims to support and accelerate the digital transformation of the construction industry by working with individuals or teams to identify, manage and apply solutions that can address their business challenges.
As a founding member of the Digital Compliance (D-COM) Network, PIF has been working to develop a new ‘digital ecosystem’ to support construction firms in navigating the complex regulatory landscape with greater ease and certainty.

The safe and effective design, construction and operation of a building is governed by an increasing number of complex regulations, requirements and standards. These can range from health and safety standards and environmental regulations to product specifications and self-imposed performance requirements.
Currently, compliance checking is often done manually, with little centralised data collection.
This means that:

• There is no single source to check that all regulations, requirements and standards are being met
• Compliance checking is time-consuming; prone to different interpretations of the wording of regulations, requirements and standards; and open to human error
• Compliance data is fragmented and lacks transparency - there is no one complete set of information available to everyone involved in the lifecycle of a building, such as the different professions involved in the design, construction and operation of a building, innovators looking to develop better compliance tools or building occupants.

Building on the work of the D-COM Network, the Digital Compliance Platform for the Built Environment project is developing an industry-wide automated compliance platform covering all regulations, requirements and standards throughout the design, construction and operation of a building.
Ultimately, this cloud-based platform will improve auditability, supporting more effective policing of compliance in the built environment, from residential homes to large infrastructure projects.

Following the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Hackitt Review highlighted poor regulatory accountability and difficulties in ongoing compliance and monitoring as a systemic problem across the entire construction industry.
The review recommended the introduction of a ‘golden thread’ as a tool to manage buildings as holistic systems and allow people to use this information to safely and effectively design, construct and operate their buildings. Dame Judith Hackitt stated that ‘a robust golden thread of key information' should be ‘passed across to future building owners to underpin more effective safety management throughout the building life cycle’.
The government committed to implementing Dame Judith Hackitt’s 'golden thread' recommendations, recognising that this would be an integral component of the wider building safety programme. The government set out that the 'golden thread' will apply to all buildings within the scope of the new more stringent building safety regime, being introduced through the Building Safety Bill.

Initial funding from the Centre for Digital Built Britain in 2018, saw Cardiff University lead the formalisation of the Digital Compliance (D-COM) Network, to drive forward the digitisation of regulations, requirements and compliance checking systems in the built environment.
It brought together academics, industry and specialists, such as PIF, who recognised that the rapid adoption of building information modelling (BIM) and the increasing maturity of data models was enabling digital compliance checking.

Without a unifying 'ecosystem', bringing together the standards, data sources and tools required for digital compliance processes, technology companies will struggle to create the comprehensive solutions needed by the industry.

The myriad documents, requirements, standards and regulations essential for creating a safe built environment were developed to be interpreted, checked, and complied with by humans. This has been a major challenge to the digitisation of compliance.
As a result, even market-leading digital compliance systems tend to lack the ability to scale from small to large buildings or district and city levels; to easily transfer from the requirements of one project to the requirements of another, or to be accessible without the need for significant scientific or technical expertise.
The D-COM network has been carrying out further research into:

• The digitisation and management of requirements and regulations from a variety of contexts and sources
• Automatic and semi-automatic compliance systems
• Formats for the storage of compliance data that also allow the results of regulatory compliance checking to be analysed
• Use cases for compliance data at a district, city and national level
• The convergence of private and public requirements for automated design Building on this research, the project team is developing an open platform where accessible standards for digitising regulatory and requirement clauses and standardised application programming interfaces (APIs) link with existing and new compliance tools to check and manage compliance automatically and consistently.
  Bringing digitised compliance processes together will enable the development of scalable, transferable and accessible solutions. PIF and its project partners are leading this use of this 'digital ecosystem', drawing on its open platform standards to develop new compliance tools tailored to specific use cases.
  A centralised digital platform for compliance will result in safer, better performing, higher quality buildings by ensuring:
• A single source for the compliance data relating to a building, so that it is easier to check that all regulations, requirements and standards are being met
• Greater certainty that regulations, requirements and standards are being met. Human error is removed from those compliance checks that can be automated, allowing compliance professionals to spend more time on the aspects of a building that still require manual assessment or investigation.
• A 'golden thread' of compliance data so that a complete set of information is available to everyone involved in the lifecycle of a building. This will allow the different professions involved in the design, construction and operation of a building to see connected aspects of compliance; a building's entire compliance history to be passed from operator to operator or owner to owner; innovators to develop better compliance tools based on a consistent 'digital ecosystem', and greater transparency around building safety and performance for occupants.
• Better data on safety and the quality of life of asset-users as more buildings share information throughout their entire life cycle.

Initial funding from the Centre for Digital Built Britain in 2018 enabled the formalisation of the Digital Compliance (D-COM) Network.
Founding members of the network, Process Innovation Factory (PIF) have been leading the Digital Compliance Platform Project along with the following core D-COM partners:

• Cardiff University - As the leader of the D-COM network, Cardiff University has led work proposing a vision for a new open digital compliance ecosystem that can integrate regulations, assessors and project teams along with the wide variety of software tools needed to operate compliance processes in the modern built environment.
• Solibri - As a leading developer of software performing compliance checking in the built environment, Solibri is seeking to use this project to enable it to provide software that can support a wide customer base using various, unrelated, data sets.
• AEC3 - A consultancy in digitised compliance processes has helped the project establish the 'rules' that generate and explain compliance decisions and report them securely to the parties involved.
• HKA - A leading global consultancy in risk mitigation and dispute resolution. It provided insights from advising governments, public bodies and organisations on the development and assurance of building information modelling (BIM) and other digital requirements.

Highways England (now National Highways), Sero Energy and Passiv UK also inputted to the project as prospective 'clients' of the platform:

• Highways England is looking to use digitised compliance processes to achieve productivity improvements, initially around its Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB)
• Sero Energy wants to use digitised compliance processes to ensure both zero carbon build quality and energy optimisation services
• Passiv UK intends to use the compliance platform to support its energy services in offering consumers, asset owners and businesses better value for money, alongside making a difference to global emissions

• AEC3
• Cardiff University
• Centre for Digital Built Britain
• Digital Compliance Network
• HKA
• Highways England
• Passiv UK
• Sero Energy
• Solibri

The Construction Innovation Hub's Information Management project develops tools and guidance designed to support the industry to adapt and thrive within an evolving digital landscape.
The CIH, funded by the Transforming Construction Challenge, was a key partner for the project team; incorporating and extending the work of the D-COM Network and sharing its insights into how a 'golden thread' of information could enable the construction industry to evolve and improve.

The Digital Compliance Platform for the Built Environment project is developing an industry-wide automated compliance platform covering all regulations, requirements and standards throughout the design, construction and operation of a building.
A centralised digital platform for compliance will result in safer, better performing, higher quality buildings by ensuring:

• A single source for the compliance data relating to a building, so that it is easier to check that all regulations, requirements and standards are being met
• Greater certainty that regulations, requirements and standards are being met. Human error is removed from those compliance checks that can be automated while allowing compliance professionals to spend more time on the aspects of a building that still require manual assessment or investigation.
• A 'golden thread' of compliance data so that a complete set of information is available to everyone involved in the lifecycle of a building. This will allow the different professions involved in the design, construction and operation of a building to see connected aspects of compliance; a building's entire compliance history to be passed from operator to operator or owner to owner; innovators to develop better compliance tools based on a consistent 'digital ecosystem', and greater transparency around building safety and performance for occupants.
• Better data on safety and the quality of life of asset-users as more buildings share information throughout their entire life cycle. Ultimately, this cloud-based platform will improve auditability, supporting more effective policing of compliance in the built environment, from residential homes to large infrastructure projects.

Increasing the availability of open-source data can empower the public. By accessing compliance information about the assets they use, members of the public can become active participants in the safety and performance of their built environment; reporting non-compliance or working with asset owners to improve performance.
This transparency and agency can increase the trust and confidence between building regulators, designers, constructors, managers, owners and the public.

The D-COM network has been carrying out further research into:

• The digitisation and management of requirements and regulations from a variety of contexts and sources
• Automatic and semi-automatic compliance systems
• Formats for the storage of compliance data that also allow the results of regulatory compliance checking to be analysed
• Use cases for compliance data at a district, city and national level
• The convergence of private and public requirements for automated design

As a result, this project is developing an open platform where accessible standards for digitising regulatory and requirement clauses and standardised application programming interfaces (APIs) link with existing and new compliance tools to check and manage compliance automatically and consistently.
PIF and its project partners are leading the use of this 'digital ecosystem', drawing on its open platform standards to develop new compliance tools tailored to specific use cases.
Bringing digitised compliance processes together will enable the development of scalable, transferable and accessible solutions, providing the 'golden thread' required to ensure safer, better performing, higher-quality buildings. 

Current practices result in the construction industry losing £1.4 billion annually on compliance and associated legal costs.
Today, 30% of a build cost can be attributed to regulation and compliance management, which is largely manual. On average construction businesses face approximately eight legal compliance issues a year, costing them around £832,000 in total.

Assurance
More automated compliance checking can create greater certainty that regulations, requirements and standards are being met. It removes human error from those compliance checks that can be automated, allowing compliance professionals to spend more time on the aspects of a building that still require manual assessment or investigation.
A growing database of verified compliance and regulatory requirements opens up opportunities for data analytics to help streamline the regulatory landscape, by identifying conflicting requirements or redundant clauses.
It also helps to provide a 'golden thread' of compliance data so that a complete set of information is available to everyone involved in the lifecycle of a building. This will allow the different professions involved in the design, construction and operation of a building to see connected aspects of compliance; a building's entire compliance history to be passed from operator to operator or owner to owner; innovators to develop better compliance tools based on a consistent 'digital ecosystem', and greater transparency around building safety and performance for occupants.
Ultimately, this improved auditability provides stronger accountability and supports more effective policing of compliance in the built environment, from residential homes to large infrastructure projects.

Cost
Current practices result in the construction industry losing £1.4 billion annually on compliance and associated legal costs.
Today, 30% of a build cost can be attributed to regulation and compliance management, which is largely manual. On average construction businesses face approximately eight legal compliance issues a year, costing them around £832,000 in total.
Greater transparency will give asset owners the ability to reduce operational costs through:

• Defining and monitoring desired performance requirements throughout the design and build stages of a project
• Improved performance benchmarking and insights using industry data
• Better management of operational performance using automated notifications to tackle non-compliant performance earlier

Productivity
With the aid of automation, an operative will be able to easily access performance benchmarks and quality insights, enabling them to check more regulations in a given time.
Real-time self-compliance during design, construction and operation will also speed up the compliance process and reduce the requirement for investigation and re-work.
Approved Documents, which provide government guidance on how building regulations can be satisfied, cover statutory and non-statutory elements. The statutory elements make up around 39% of a typical Approved Document (DCOM project data). The relevant authority or approved inspector usually spot checks 20% of these statutory elements. This means that only approximately 8% of the total elements are actually checked for any given dwelling application. With digitised clauses, this compliance can be 100% checked by a machine in less than one minute for a typical dwelling.
Regulation and standard owners could also benefit from digitisation, with it easing the process of managing and updating the regulations and standards they are responsible for. It also creates the potential for new business models where they can charge third party compliance applications for access to their data.
The Digital Compliance project has developed an online solution called Ru:Bi that allows users to view, edit or create clauses through an event-driven process allowing authors, approvers, and checkers to work concurrently on a clause that needs to be edited or refreshed. The system retains a full audit trail. The Approved Document can be re-rendered again from the revised clauses into a new version. This solution not only enables the editing and crafting of clauses but also allows the building of rules for each clause to be checked by a machine. The rules can be published as checklists for manual checking or applied directly to a BIM model during design for compliance.

Safety
A centralised digital platform for compliance will result in safer, better performing, higher quality buildings by ensuring:

• A single source for the compliance data relating to a building, so that it is easier to check that all regulations, requirements and standards are being met
• Greater certainty that regulations, requirements and standards are being met. Human error is removed from those compliance checks that can be automated, allowing compliance professionals to spend more time on the aspects of a building that still require manual assessment or investigation.
• A 'golden thread' of compliance data so that a complete set of information is available to everyone involved in the lifecycle of a building. This will allow the different professions involved in the design, construction and operation of a building to see connected aspects of compliance; a building's entire compliance history to be passed from operator to operator or owner to owner; innovators to develop better compliance tools based on a consistent 'digital ecosystem', and greater transparency around building safety and performance for occupants.
• Better data on safety and the quality of life of asset-users as more buildings share information throughout their entire life cycle. The Digital Compliance project has developed a solution called Rockr, based on container technology and AI that allows persistence in client owner requirements and tracks all deliverables using a handover tracker. The system is being trialled by a housing association on two projects valued at £8M. During this 12-month trial, each project has been able to save between 12-17% (HAs Investment Panel Paper) on compliance management as a result of using Rockr. It also has the ability to track undelivered or incomplete items using its AI engine stating, enabling the intent of the ‘golden thread’.
  Ultimately, this cloud-based platform will improve auditability, supporting more effective policing of compliance in the built environment, from residential homes to large infrastructure projects.

Time
Currently, it takes between 38-42 hours (BRAC data) for a relevant authority or approved inspector to check the statutory elements of an application for a dwelling house. Approved Documents, which provide government guidance on how building regulations can be satisfied, cover statutory and non-statutory elements. The statutory elements make up around 39% of a typical Approved Document (DCOM project data). The relevant authority or approved inspector usually spot checks 20% of these statutory elements. This means that only approximately 8% of the total elements are actually checked for any given dwelling application.
With digitised clauses, this compliance can be 100% checked by a machine in less than one minute for a typical dwelling. Based on the 42,970 dwellings completed between 2018 and 2020 (ONS data), this would equate to a saving of between 205,000 and 225,000 days.
Typically, it takes 27 to 42 months for a regulation to come into force with appropriate guidance published as Approved Documents (National Archive data). The Digital Compliance project has developed an online solution called Ru:Bi that allows users to view, edit or create clauses through an event-driven process allowing authors, approvers, and checkers to work concurrently on a clause that needs to be edited or refreshed. The Approved Document can be re-rendered again from the revised clauses into a new version. This process can be completed within 6 to 12 weeks, providing economic and social benefits as regulations and compliance keep up with events, avoiding the lag evidenced by the Grenfell enquiry.

Whole-life Value
Greater transparency and automation of compliance data will enable asset owners to improve the value their buildings deliver.
Defining, sharing and monitoring desired performance requirements throughout the design, build and operation of a building means that the different professions involved throughout these phases will have greater visibility of interconnected aspects of compliance that affect whole life value. This entire compliance history will also be passed from operator to operator, ensuring that the data needed to continue delivering this value is not lost when the ownership of an asset changes.
Automated notifications will allow building managers to tackle non-compliant performance earlier resulting in better environmental performance and quality of life for occupants.
Increasing the availability of open-source data can empower the public to play an active role in the value delivered by the assets they use; whether through reporting non-compliance or working with asset owners to improve performance.
A unifying 'digital ecosystem' will allow innovators to develop better compliance tools and apps, with improved performance benchmarking and value-driven insights. As more buildings share information throughout their entire life cycle, useful data on the regulations, requirements and standards that most impact whole life value will only increase. New digital solutions will allow these insights to scale from single buildings to whole districts or cities.

Construction Innovation Hub and D-COM Network – Final Event – June 2022