Incorrectly wired socket

[shagster]

I believe I've messed up wiring an extra socket on a ring circuit. I've cut the earth wires rather short, put sleeves on them and connected them to the back box terminal, instead of the faceplate. Although the faceplate will be earthed through the screws, after reading posts on the forum it seems that's wrong, and the earth wires need to be connected direct to the face plate. I believe this is not the way you'd normally do it, but is there any reason why I can't now run an extra wire to the face place from the back box earth terminal, if so does it have to be two wires or can I just use one? Prefer not to pull the cables out of the wall, but will do if it needs to be done!

thanks,
S.

 

[EFLImpudence]

is there any reason why I can't now run an extra wire to the face place from the back box earth terminal

No, that'll be fine.

if so does it have to be two wires or can I just use one?

Depends how thick it is.
Use two pieces of the same earth wire if that's all you have - sleeved g/y of course.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have to say it's a bit scary to imagine someone doing electrical work who looks at a socket with terminals for L. N & E, the latter, obviously, being more than just for earthing the face plate, and deciding to connect L & N directly but not the earth.

You might argue that that's OK for a light switch, but a socket? Your life could depend on a low-impedance earth path from an appliance, and you thought you'd have a couple of turns on a screw in an imprecise hole in a thin piece of metal as part of that path?