RCD on the Consumer Unit and also remotely...

[JohnW2]

It is when some headless DIYer puts a metal shelf bracket on the wall and one of the screws goes into the live conductor in a buried cable that RCDs can be very useful in protecting people from serious electric shock from an electrically live metal shelf bracket.

... If RCDs had been installed on the final circuits then Mary Wherry would still be alive.

She quite probably would be. However, I have to wonder how many other times a comparable, very unfortunate, set of highly unlikely circumstances has arisen in the past 50 or so years?

We have very little idea of what the impact has been on 'serious injuries', but we do know that neither the introduction (and very widespread use of) RCDs nor the introduction of Part P had any noticeable impact on the number of deaths due to domestic electrocution in the UK.

PS I still really do not uinderstand why th 'powers' have removed kitchens from the notification process. In my experience, they are the worst place in many houses due to unaware trades, or DIYers "doing up" the kitchen.

I can sympathise with that view. You might also have included outdoor electrical work. One suspects that not enough (adequately) intelligent thought went into deciding what to put in, or take out, of the notification requirements, either in 2005 or 2013.

Kind Regards, John