I have recently done the C&G courses for Portable Appliance Testing. The IEE
Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical
Equipment latest edition 2003 gives details of the visual checks to be
applied to a standard plug after removing the cover. These include checking
the cord anchorage, cable core terminations etc. On the practical part of
the course the instructor also emphasised that the relative free lengths of
conductors was very important. The Earth conductor should have the most
play, followed by the Neutral, then the Live. The reason being that if a
user pulled the cable, with maybe the cord anchorage a bit loose, the Live
conductor would become disconnected first, followed by the Neutral, then the
Earth. This would seem to be sensible, as the Earth connection would be
maintained up to the last point. The CoP book (para 14.5) does not mention
this, although the diagram does show the Live having the shortest amount of
free play. If I am inspecting equipment, how do I treat a plug which has all
conductors with the same free length of cable, or say the Earth has the
shortest length? Do I fail it? Do I rewire it?