On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:23:30 +0100, a particular chimpanzee, "Doctor
Drivel" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

The building regulations are law. If they point to the 17th, then that is
law too. British Standards are recommendations only and you don't need to
follow - if the Building regs point to a BS it is law in that context.

Not quite. The Building Regulations are law, but in this case the
requirement Part P of Schedule 1 to the Regulations says, "reasonable
provision shall be made in the design, installation, inspection and
testing of electrical installations in order to protect persons from
fire or injury". That is the only legal requirement.

The Approved Documents details _how_ the requirement can be met, and
AD P references BS7671: 2001 Chapter 13. The preamble to the Approved
Document, however, also says, "however, if [a named standard] has been
revised or updated by the issuing standards body, the new version may
be used as a source of guidance provided it continues to address the
relevant requirements of the Regulations". If the 17th edition has
been published as a 'proper' standard, then it can be used as
guidance.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"