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Perhaps it's a main RCD fitted in the meter box which tripped?

Perhaps what is meant is that the power went off without any sign of the RCBO having tripped, but that turning the breaker off and on again restored power? If that's the case, then perhaps faulty contacts in the RCBO, or a loose connection disturbed by the slight movement when it was operated.

Unfortunately, still nothing as far as I'm aware, unless it's been introduced in the most recent revision. The NEC seems to have always been very weak in the area of testing requirements.

That's a recent idea - Previously the neutral was not considered to be a live conductor by the Wiring Regs. But that aside, I agree that despite the common talk of "reverse polarity" when what is meant is an L-N reversal, it really isn't any such thing, just a reversal of which of two...

What type? With some (e.g. Wylex Standard) you can just change out the rewireable carrier for a cartridge fuse or plug-in circuit-breaker.

If you do actually mean the switch, and not the light, then it's because there's no need to have a neutral at a simple switch. If all you have at the switch is a single cable with red & black going to the switch and nothing else (except an earth), then you do not have a neutral there and will...

You may not have a neutral available at the existing pull-cord switch, in which case no, you can't just take power for the fan from that point. Consider also if you really do want the fan to come on every time you switch the light on anyway. A completely separate switch is much more versatile...

Ah, yes, I think you may be right:

Isn't single-insulated flex (as opposed to insulated and sheathed) now compliant for only a few specific applications? (Christmas fairy lights come to mind.) I think it was around the mid 1970's it ceased to be recognized for general lighting pendants, appliance cords, etc.

There was an old convention of the ridged conductor being the neutral (a convention which is still recognized here in the U.S.). But since flex of this type fell out of general use in the U.K., the convention has probably been largely forgotten, and if it's Far Eastern stuff, who knows what...

No. It's a situation in which the landlord commissioning the work may or may not have done so, depending upon whether the work involved was notifiable or not. Extensions may not involve adding a new circuit (if you can figure out what that means anyway) or the replacement of a consumer unit...

Let's not start that again.

There's really no such thing as a 17th edition (or 16th or anything else) compliant board, since it depends how it's used.

It would be possible to comply: You just need a separate RCBO on each final circuit (and a larger budget).

Not having come from a BS7671-centric British electrician's background, what I don't have is an absolute insistence that every last regulation within BS7671 needs to be followed, and an illogical approach adopted by some that something which was installed yesterday and considered pefectly fine...

And I have to wonder whose bright idea that change was....... :(

Officially, they shouldn't be pulling the main fuse in the first place, as noted already, and if they've broken the seal to do so (possibly incurring the wrath of the supplier, possibly not) then they might as well replace it when the work is done and just leave it to be re-sealed later. And...

Indeed. Many installations for many decades had a single earth-leakage protective device of some sort for the entire installation, be it the old voltage-operated ELCB, the older 500mA or so current-operated ELCB, or the newer 100mA or less RCCB/RCD. For my last 17 years or so in "the old...

But neither does the typical split-load board with one RCD feeding multiple final circuits which British electricians have been happily installing all around the country for 20 years or more since that rule was introduced. I wonder how many note it as a departure on the certificate?

The issue there is that the cut-out and main fuse belong to the supplier. Strictly speaking nobody except somebody working with the authority of the DNO or the metering company is supposed to pull it, replace it, or do anything else with it. In practice, some suppliers don't seem to make too...