I empathise with saxondale in that whilst nothing BAS has stated is incorrect, what practical value is there, in the context of the original post, to suggest that the OP may be able to stay within the law by complying with any other standard than BS7671 ?
The values of truth and accuracy.
(And as an aside, if you don't like the suggestion that the OP may be able to stay within the law by complying with any standard other than BS7671, then please go and take your argument to Hazel Blears MP, who is Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and therefore responsible for the department which in official advice tells everyone that they can stay within the law by complying with any one of many standards other than BS7671. That is not an invention of mine, or an interpretation - it is explicitly stated in black and white by the Government. You might also like to re-read the OP, which was nothing to do with BS7671, or not, and everything to do with non-notification).
The problem, you see, is that as soon as you start "misleading" people (aka lying to them) because you think you know better than them what they can be trusted to know, you run the risk of them finding out the truth, and finding out that you have been misleading them.
At which point they will no longer trust you, and will no longer believe a damn thing you say. All of your advice to them, no matter how good, becomes worthless in their eyes.
You talk about the context of the original post, but that had absolutely nothing to do with the post I made that caused all that grief. The only context to consider is the one which related to the answer I gave, for which I received so much stick from people unable to read and comprehend.
The question was this:
Assume that the work has been done to BS7671 (2001/2004) and not notified but then the naughty DIYer decides to subsequently notify.
Would he (now) have to bring his 16th edition work up to meet 17th edition requirements ??
And the answer to that,
unless you're going to lie, is "no".
And it can either be just "no", or it can be "no" with an explanation as to why, and I chose the latter.