Surprisingly it can be a foreign plug and the flex can be made to a
foreign (non - EU, typically US) standard, perhaps with the proviso
that they include instructions for changing the flex


Is that now true for vendors in the UK please?

I know that there was consultation in 2006-07 on some changes to the
regulations. And also that some non-UK companies (eg Pixmania) ship
goods with French plugs and a simple plug-in adapter (rather than a
convertor). But they are selling from outside the UK.

For vendors in the UK the legislation used to require for ordinary stuff
(leaving stuff wired in like cookers) either a standard UK plug or "a
non-UK plug complying with the safety provisions of the International
Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 884-1 (1987) and fitted with a
conversion plug of a type approved for use with such a non-UK plug which
encloses the fitted non-UK plug and can only be removed by the use of a
tool" (to quote the ex. note to the original Plugs and Sockets etc.
(Safety) Regulations 1994). And that's what trading standards seem
still to work to.

But I may have misunderstood and/or missed new regulations.


--
R